{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_61813/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_61813","id":"gutenberg_61813","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61813","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Holy wells","Water -- Folklore","Water -- Religious aspects"],"text":"FOLKLORE OF WELLS\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Floating of lamps during the Kartik Bath.]\n\n\n\n\n                            FOLKLORE OF WELLS\n\n                            BEING A STUDY OF\n                              WATER-WORSHIP\n                            IN EAST AND WEST\n\n                                   BY\n                           R. P. MASANI, M.A.\n\n                                 BOMBAY:\n                      D. B. TARAPOREVALA SONS & Co.\n                                  1918\n\n   Printed by B. Miller, Superintendent, British India Press, Bombay.\n               Published by D. B. Taraporevala Sons & Co.\n\n\n\n\nTABLE OF CONTENTS.\n\n\n  Introduction                                          Pages xvii to xxvi.\n\n                    PART I. FOLKLORE OF BOMBAY WELLS.\n\n                               CHAPTER I.\n\n                          _SANCTITY OF WATER._\n\n  Origin of fevers\u2014Wrath of Shiva\u2014Story of Ek\u0101nterio, the malaria\n  fiend\u2014Closing of wells\u2014Protests based on religious sentiments\n  and supernatural beliefs\u2014Scriptural injunctions for the use of\n  well water\u2014Opinions of Parsi scholars\u2014Some Hindu beliefs and\n  usages\u2014Ceremonies requiring water drawn from seven wells\u2014Lighting\n  of lamps in the niches in wells\u2014The unwashed sect of the\n  Jains\u2014Aversion to bathing\u2014The days of the Drymais                    1-8\n\n                               CHAPTER II.\n\n                             _WATER SAINTS._\n\n  Spirits dwelling in wells\u2014Disasters brought on by pent-up\n  spirits\u2014The fortunes of the Edwardes Theatre\u2014Mysterious collapse\n  of barriers\u2014The sacred well of Alice Building\u2014Propitiated\n  well-spirits avert accidents\u2014Story of two sisters\u2014Oracular well\n  of Ghoga Street\u2014Midnight and midday visits to wells\u2014Ceremony of\n  divination at St. Oswall\u2019s well                                     9-13\n\n                              CHAPTER III.\n\n                        _PENALTY FOR DEFILEMENT._\n\n  The labourer who spat on the pavement of an oracular well\u2014Fate\n  of an European girl who offended the saintly spirit of Loveji\n  Castle\u2014Acts of defilement, whether conscious or unconscious,\n  offend the spirits\u2014The Nowroji Wadia house tragedy\u2014A Damascus\n  custom\u2014Destruction of the land of Logres\u2014Concerts of the\n  nymphs\u2014\u201cThe pure one\u201d fountain of Egypt\u2014An Esthonian belief\u2014A\n  curious variant of the belief concerning defilement\u2014Deliberate\n  pollution of wells so as to constrain the rain-god\u2014Albiruni\u2019s\n  interrogatories\u2014Doctrine of negation of knowledge                  14-17\n\n                               CHAPTER IV.\n\n                         _QUAINT PARSI BELIEFS._\n\n  Worship of cabined spirits on full moon eve\u2014Goat-sacrifice\n  on marriage days\u2014Practice of besmearing the forehead\n  with the blood of the victim\u2014Non-Aryan cults imbibed\n  by the Aryans\u2014Hindu and Parsi beliefs in water-spirits\n  compared\u2014Antiquity of water-worship among the Parsis\u2014Worship\n  of _Ardevi Sura Anahita_\u2014Influence of the _genii locorum_ on\n  the community\u2014Mahomedan patron saints of Parsi household\u2014An\n  anthropological puzzle\u2014Ecstatic possession of a Parsi woman\u2014The\n  Gunbow well\u2014_Murgha B\u00e2w\u00e2\u2019s_ well\u2014Cures effected by the grace of\n  water-saints\u2014Beliefs common to the whole world\u2014Association of\n  life with motion\u2014Water-worship in the East has its counterpart\n  in the history of Western thought\u2014Professor Robertson Smith\u2019s\n  description of the worship prevailing in Arabia\u2014Well-worship in\n  the West probably more widespread and primitive than in the East   18-26\n\n                PART II. WATER-WORSHIP IN EAST AND WEST.\n\n                               CHAPTER V.\n\n                _THE MOST WIDE-SPREAD PHASE OF ANIMISM._\n\n  Deification of fountains and rivers a general cult\u2014Max M\u00fcller\u2019s\n  theory of poetic personification\u2014The spiritual element uppermost\n  in the worship of water\u2014Water an important factor during the\n  first three days of Creation\u2014Rabbi Ismael\u2019s saying\u2014Babylonian\n  conception of the god Nun\u2014Rising of Shu from water\u2014The Akkad\n  triad of gods\u2014Worship of streams absorbed by the Hittites into\n  their pantheon\u2014Two triads sacred to the Ph\u0153nicians\u2014The Vedic god\n  Varuna\u2014How the conception of the night served to convey the idea\n  of the ocean\u2014Greek beliefs\u2014Okeanos and Skamandros\u2014Neptune, the\n  Latin sea-god\u2014N\u0113reus, the Old Man of the Sea\u2014The Scandinavian\n  god Ni\u00f6rd\u2014Midsuno Kami, the water-god of Japan\u2014The Peruvian\n  sea-god Virakocha\u2014Worship of Mamacocha, Mother Sea\u2014The Egyptian\n  Nile-god\u2014Parsi festival in honour of Ardevi Sur Anahita\u2014The Greek\n  goddess Aphrodite\u2014Wells of water bestowed by Greek saints\u2014Healing\n  virtues of the waters of Egeria\u2014Dedication of likenesses of\n  diseased limbs to the water-nymph Egeria\u2014Similar offerings to\n  Virgin Mary at Mount Mary\u2019s Chapel at Bandra\u2014The holy well of\n  Smyrna Cathedral\u2014Cures effected with ordinary water just as\n  well as with the sanctified water\u2014Arch\u00e6ological evidence of the\n  British cult\u2014American examples of animistic ideas concerning\n  water\u2014African rites of water-worship                               29-39\n\n                               CHAPTER VI.\n\n               _CHRISTIAN TOLERANCE OF THE CULT OF WATER._\n\n  A non-Christian custom\u2014Edicts of Kings, Popes and Church Councils\n  prohibiting the practice\u2014Total eradication of beliefs and customs\n  of age-long existence impossible\u2014Continuance of pagan worship\n  under Christian auspices\u2014A dual system of belief\u2014Supplication of\n  a Scottish peasant at a sacred well\u2014Grimm\u2019s examination of the\n  result of the Christian tolerance of paganism\u2014Mr. Edward Clodd\u2019s\n  testimony                                                          40-43\n\n                              CHAPTER VII.\n\n                         _HOLY WELLS AND TANKS._\n\n  Worship of Khwaja Khizr\u2014Alexander\u2019s ramble in quest of the\n  blessed waters\u2014Northern India customs\u2014_Khwaja Saheb ka\n  Dalya_\u2014Water of Zumzum\u2014Mother Ganges and Lady Jumna\u2014Pilgrimage\n  to the Godavari\u2014Russian ceremony of blessing the waters of the\n  Neva\u2014Sita\u2019s kitchen\u2014Dr. Buchanan\u2019s visit to the Monghyr well\u2014The\n  theory of expiating sins by baths\u2014King Trisanku\u2019s deadly sins and\n  salvation\u2014Washing of sins with the sacred thread\u2014Sacred wells\n  of India\u2014Rajput woman turned into a male Rajput of the Solanki\n  class\u2014The legendary lore of the holy wells of England\u2014Thomas\n  Quiller-Couch\u2019s notes on the holy wells of Cornwall\u2014Sacred wells\n  of Scotland and Ireland                                            44-53\n\n                              CHAPTER VIII.\n\n                            _HEALING WATERS._\n\n  Sanitary guardians of water\u2014Balneotherapy and Hydrotherapy not\n  unknown in Talmudic times\u2014Indian wells and tanks renowned for\n  medicinal properties\u2014A milk-bestowing well in Lonavla\u2014The\n  leper cured by the Lake of Immortality at Amritsar\u2014Virtue of\n  the conferv\u00e6 on the surface of the Lalitpur tank\u2014Famous hot\n  springs\u2014The Devki-Unai\u2014The springs of Vajrabai or the Lady of the\n  Thunderbolt\u2014The _Vali_ who makes the fire and keeps it burning\n  at the hot springs at Terka Main\u2014The madness-curing pool at\n  Hamath\u2014Mad men tumbled headlong in the Altarnum well\u2014The virtues\n  of St. Tecla\u2019s well\u2014Holywell, the Lourdes of Wales\u2014The Story of\n  St. Winefride\u2014Recent Holywell cures\u2014The calamity that befell\n  Holywell\u2014Other healing wells of Great Britain\u2014The dance round the\n  sacred springs of Enmore Green\u2014St. Conan\u2019s well\u2014Bishop Hall\u2019s\n  testimony\u2014Sacred springs in Macedonia\u2014Festival at Kaisariani\u2014A\n  suppressed miracle\u2014Pilgrimage described by Miss Hamilton\u2014Scenes\n  in Emile Zola\u2019s novel recalled                                     54-65\n\n                               CHAPTER IX.\n\n                 _PROCREATIVE POWERS OF WATER SPIRITS._\n\n  Water-spirits conferring the blessings of parenthood\u2014Charms for\n  childless women\u2014Bathing in the water of seven wells\u2014The Dewali\n  bath in the Punjab\u2014Fertilizing virtue ascribed to Scottish\n  springs\u2014General explanation of the cult of the bath\u2014Sterility\n  believed to be a disease due to demoniacal agency\u2014Another\n  theory\u2014Procreative power attributed to spirits\u2014Testimony borne by\n  Professor Curtiss\u2014Hot air vents in Syria\u2014Belief of the Punjabis\n  that the fertilizing virtue of a well is abstracted by the women\n  bathing in it\u2014The Jewish belief\u2014Conception possible in a bath\u2014The\n  theory in vogue among physicians of the twelfth century\u2014A case\n  recorded by Averroes\u2014Prevalence of the theory in Turkey\u2014Supposed\n  ancestors of persons bearing the name of the Tweed\u2014A Semong\n  tradition                                                          66-70\n\n                               CHAPTER X.\n\n                      _WISHING AND CURSING WELLS._\n\n  Oracular wells inhabited by spirits gifted with powers of\n  divination\u2014The Baladana _Kund_\u2014Prospects of the harvest divined\n  by the holy well in Askot\u2014Bread and pins as instruments of\n  divination\u2014The Amorgos well\u2014The presiding power of the well\n  of St. Michael\u2014News of absent friends given by a Cornish\n  well\u2014Two Wishing wells in Walsingham Chapel\u2014The Fairy Well in\n  Cornwall\u2014Ceremonial observances taught by the priestess of Gulval\n  Well\u2014Cursing wells\u2014Varied virtues of Holy wells\u2014The Well of St.\n  Keyne\u2014Strange traditions                                           71-75\n\n                               CHAPTER XI.\n\n                       _MALEFICENT WATER-GOBLINS._\n\n  Water-goblins infesting ill-omened streams and\n  wells\u2014Water-spirits in India regarded as friendly dispensers of\n  life and fertility\u2014Western folklore abounds in blood-thirsty\n  water-demons\u2014Some mischievous water-spirits of India\u2014Fallen\n  souls\u2014A haunted vav in Vadhwan\u2014The _Bhainsasura_ or\n  buffalo-demon\u2014The _Jat\u00e9 Buddi_ and _Jakh_ of Bengal\u2014The \u201ccups\n  of the fairies\u201d\u2014A wicked class of water-nymphs\u2014The Greek\n  water-nymphs\u2014The Sirens\u2014The Nereids\u2014The Black Giant and the\n  Drakos\u2014Superstitions concerning drowning\u2014Black\u2019s explanation in\n  \u201cFolk Medicine\u201d\u2014Prevalence of the superstition in Scotland\u2014No\n  trace of it in India\u2014Confusion of two distinct ideas               76-83\n\n                              CHAPTER XII.\n\n                            _RIVER WRAITHS._\n\n  The River of Death\u2014Indian water-furies easily\n  propitiated\u2014Continental water-deities demand human sacrifices\u2014Peg\n  O\u2019Nell\u2014Peg Powler\u2014Blood-thirsty Dee\u2014The saying about St. John\n  the Baptist\u2014Victims demanded by the German rivers on Midsummer\n  Day\u2014Lord of the Wells\u2014In the Australian theory of disease and\n  death none more prominent than the water-spirit\u2014A Macedonian\n  ballad of a Haunted Well\u2014Maleficent deities responsible for\n  floods\u2014Various modes of pacifying the furies\u2014The Nizam\u2019s offering\n  to the Musi\u2014Floods caused by offence given to patron saints of\n  water\u2014The sea-spirits more powerful but less exacting that the\n  river-wraiths\u2014The _Narali Purnima_ or Cocoanut Day                 84-91\n\n                              CHAPTER XIII.\n\n                      _WHO WERE THE WATER-DEMONS?_\n\n  Race-origin of the _Devas_ or demons of old\u2014Max M\u00fcller\u2019s\n  theory\u2014Myths of malignant spirits connected with traditions of\n  hostile races\u2014Sir Laurence Gomme\u2019s examination of the mythic\n  influence of a conquered race\u2014Bombay beliefs\u2014Other Indian\n  parallels\u2014The Moondahs and the Kathodis\u2014The origin of the\n  pixies\u2014Examination of Parsi beliefs in Mahomedan guardian-spirits\n  of wells\u2014A plea for local research                                 92-96\n\n                              CHAPTER XIV.\n\n                    _ANALYSIS OF THE BRITISH CULTS._\n\n  Gomme\u2019s analysis\u2014Table showing the effect of incoming\n  civilisations\u2014Garland-dressing, pins and rag bushes\u2014Variants\n  of one primitive form of rag-offering\u2014Arguments in favour of a\n  megalithic date for well-worship and rag-offerings                97-100\n\n                 PART III. VARIED RITUALS AND OFFERINGS.\n\n                               CHAPTER XV.\n\n              _WATER-DIVINING AND WELL-OPENING CEREMONIES._\n\n  Jewish song of the well\u2014Selection of suitable sites for\n  wells\u2014Water-diviners\u2014An extraordinary incident of the Gallipoli\n  campaign\u2014Ceremonies connected with the digging of wells          102-108\n\n                              CHAPTER XVI.\n\n                      _DECORATIONS AND OFFERINGS._\n\n  Indian methods of venerating wells\u2014Human sacrifices\u2014Animal\n  sacrifices\u2014Ceremonies demonstrably non-Aryan in India in\n  original non-Aryan in Europe\u2014A Whitsuntide custom\u2014Lamb, a votive\n  thank-offering\u2014The Ram Feast at Holne\u2014Substitutes for animal\n  victims\u2014Curious explanation for offerings of coins               109-113\n\n                              CHAPTER XVII.\n\n                       _RAG WELLS AND PIN WELLS._\n\n  Rag wells and Pin wells of Great Britain\u2014Their geographical\n  distribution\u2014Henderson\u2019s explanation of the cult\u2014Theory put\n  forward by Sir John Rhys\u2014Sir Laurence Gomme\u2019s examination of\n  the theory\u2014Other authorities\u2014Use of wool in hanging up rags      114-120\n\n                             CHAPTER XVIII.\n\n                    _A MISUNDERSTOOD INDIAN CUSTOM._\n\n  Indian custom of hoisting flags near shrines and sacred\n  trees\u2014A practice quite distinct from rag-offering\u2014How European\n  folklorists are misled\u2014Confusion of flags and rags\u2014The flag\n  is offered only and solely as a thank-offering or as a mark\n  of respect\u2014How the rag came to be regarded as a vehicle of\n  disease\u2014An explanation of two conflicting theories               121-127\n\n                              CHAPTER XIX.\n\n                       _ANIMAL DEITIES OF WATER._\n\n  European belief in the presence of animals or fish as the\n  presiding spirits of water\u2014These animal gods imperfectly\n  represented in the waters of the East\u2014The Nags or semi-divine\n  beings, half men and half serpents\u2014Frogs and trouts and worms and\n  flies as guardian-spirits of wells in Europe\u2014A pair of enchanted\n  trout\u2014A medicinal spring and its presiding worm\u2014Another presiding\n  genius in the semblance of a fly\u2014Divine life of water believed\n  to reside in the sacred fish\u2014Foundation of the cult the same\n  everywhere\u2014Difference only in forms and rituals                  128-131\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n\n  1. Floating of lamps during the Kartik _Bath_.\n\n  2. Parsis on the sea-beach in Bombay.\n\n  3. Offerings to the Gunbow Well.\n\n  4. Ganga M\u00e2i.\n\n  5. Marjan Vidhi: Washing away of sins with the changing of the\n       sacred thread.\n\n  6. Ocean-worship.\n\n  7. Narali Purnima.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nFor literary conceits and dreams of authorship there is no more powerful\nantidote than the tedium of official life. It radically cures all such\nmorbid propensities. This little book, however, owes its inspiration\nto office routine. It was in connection with official business that my\ninterest in the subject of water-worship was awakened about six years ago\nwhen in my capacity as Municipal Secretary of Bombay I received several\nprotests against requisitions for the closing of wells.\n\nIn the course of its campaign against malaria the Municipality had to\ncall upon owners of wells breeding anopheles mosquitoes to close them.\nThe owners protested against these orders and in their petitions they\ncited traditions concerning the sanctity of water and related stories\nof spirits residing in the wells which to one ignorant of the social\norganization and customs of the people might appear to be nothing more\nthan old wives\u2019 tales and babble, or mere pretexts to shirk civic\nresponsibilities, but which a student of traditional lore has learnt to\nprize as priceless fragments of information concerning the condition\nof human thought of bygone ages. Often during one\u2019s investigation of\nsuch local accounts one comes across examples where history is in close\ncontact with popular tradition, illustrating abundantly the inherent\nvalue of what Sir Henry Maine slightingly called \u201cthe slippery testimony\nconcerning savages which is gathered from travellers\u2019 tales.\u201d Looked at\nfrom that point of view, the curious beliefs and customs referred to in\nthose petitions revealed divers elements of sociological and ethnological\nimportance leading back to the days of the ancestors of the petitioners,\nand affording glimpses of remote, unexplored periods of antiquity when\npeople unknown to history dwelt in the particular localities from which\nthe petitioners hailed and left behind them a heritage of their mental\nstrivings and conceptions concerning wells and springs and other natural\nobjects. All this local lore of wells established, beyond doubt, the\nprevalence of water-worship amongst educated Hindus and Parsis residing\nin Bombay. It was, however, a medley of many divergent elements. To\ndocket and classify all the constituent elements of this folklore, to\ntrace their origin and to throw fresh light on the different stages of\nculture of the early settlers in the island of Bombay, was a task far\nbeyond my capacity. Nevertheless, it seemed to me it would be a sin to\nallow such precious gems of information to remain buried in the dusky\narchives of the Municipality. I therefore culled from the official\ncorrespondence such gems as I could lay my hands on, made personal\ninvestigations about local wells, gathered additional information and\nread a paper on the Folklore of Bombay Wells before the Anthropological\nSociety of Bombay on the 30th August 1916.\n\nIt was natural that my interest in the subject should grow as I\nproceeded. What struck me most during my studies and inquiries was the\nstriking resemblance in the traditions, customs, rites and ceremonies\nprevailing in India and those in vogue in European countries. It was\nclear, moreover, that until recently the cult of water flourished in\nthe West in a more primitive and much ruder form than in India. I was,\ntherefore, tempted to read before the Society a second paper on the\nsubject and this was followed by another on the rituals of water-worship\nand the sundry offerings to water-spirits in East and West.\n\nIt was impossible to bring within the range of these papers all the\nmaterials I had collected. As the series was primarily intended to\nexpound the lore of wells only, a good deal remained unsaid concerning\nthe divine seas and springs and tanks and cataracts. I, therefore,\nthought of completing the series and publishing a volume embodying the\nvaried water-cults, localising and classifying them, and tracing, as far\nas possible, their genealogy with a view to elucidating the early life\nof the people who lived in the different localities from time to time\nand their relationship with the ancestors of the long-forgotten races\nof other climes in which such ideas and customs also prevailed. It was\na very ambitious project, but I was tempted to set about it as in the\nbibliography of anthropological literature I could not find a single\nvolume specially devoted to the subject. I was, however, unable to make\nmuch progress for some months owing to other engagements.\n\nA few days ago, when I was sitting on the Versova sands, musing on life\u2019s\nuncertainties and the vanity of human wishes, recalling Tennyson\u2019s\nwords \u201cso many worlds, so much to do, so little done, such things to\nbe,\u201d methought I heard a water-nymph questioning me from under the\npale-green sea-groves: \u201cHow many years wilt thou dream away before\nthou completest that work? Why not immediately convey to thy readers\nour invitation to the concerts of the nymphs?\u201d At once I recalled that\neight years had rolled by since I had resolved to complete another\nseries of anthropological papers, _viz._, Naming Customs and Name\nSuperstitions, just as I had thought of elaborating the water-worship\nseries, but that I had not been able to take the work in hand in the\nmidst of rapidly increasing daily duties. What chance was there of better\nsuccess in regard to this new work? I, therefore, thought it advisable\nto publish the papers as read before the Society without further delay.\nTheir publication in book-form has, however, necessitated a somewhat\nunsatisfactory arrangement of chapters, and for this and other demerits I\nowe an apology to the reader.\n\nIt might perhaps be said that such a gallimaufry of divers tales and\ntraditions, beliefs and superstitions long current among different\npeople in different countries treats the reader to nothing new. It might\nalso be urged that these traditions and customs are mere survivals of a\nparticular phase of animism with which we are all familiar, that we all\nknow that from remote ages our ancestors have peopled trees and plants,\nstocks and stones, dales and hills, and seas and springs with all sorts\nof spirits, visible and invisible, and that it is upon this spirit-world\nof prehistoric man that the primeval nature-worship of our Aryan\nancestors was based, upon which again rest the religions and philosophies\nof the civilised world. This is all very true. Veneration of water is\nundoubtedly a phase of nature-worship. The student of history knows why\nfrom the remotest ages Egypt, Babylon, India and China became centres of\npopulation in the East and why the plains of Lombardy and Netherlands\nattracted waves of humanity in the West. Naturally, man gravitated\ntowards districts where food was easily obtainable. Valleys and plains\nfertilized by springs became his home. Water to him was not only the\nprime necessity of life, but the birth-place, so to say, of life.\nMoreover, the primitive mind associated life with motion. It saw spirits\nin rolling stones and swinging boughs. How could it remain unconscious of\nthe spirits controlling the many-sounding seas and bubbling rivers and\ntumbling waterfalls? This is the _raison d\u2019\u00eatre_ of the universality of\nwater-worship. No new work on the folklore of wells is needed to tell us\nthat, but, as I have just stated, such folklore contains valuable details\nof social conditions and the early history of races and if it puts in\nthe hands of the student of antiquities a key to the sealed book of some\nunexplored stages of the cultural history, howsoever fragmentary, of\nforgotten races, its publication would not be wholly in vain.\n\nRaces flourish and vanish, but their concepts and customs live in their\nsuccessors. These successors are not necessarily their descendants.\nOften they are invaders and conquerors, sometimes refugees, professing\naltogether different creeds, but with the estates and objects which they\ninherit from their predecessors they also inherit their mental strivings\nand traditions and customs and hand these down from generation to\ngeneration. These in their turn influence others, wherever they go. Thus\nit is that we see ancient customs and ceremonies observed, even to this\nday, with very little variation, by different communities, even though\nseparated by oceans.\n\nNumerous illustrations may be given of this parallelism of beliefs\nprevailing in different places and their persistence in different culture\neras. One remarkable instance is the preservation of the bridge-sacrifice\ntraditions. It is referred to by Sir Laurence Gomme in _Folklore as\nan Historical Science_ in the course of his analysis of the legend of\nthe Pedlar of Lambeth and the treasure stories centering round London\nBridge. The bridge was the work of the Romans of Lundinium\u2014a marvellous\nenterprise in the eyes of the Celtic tribesmen who believed that the\nbuilding of the bridge was accompanied by human sacrifice. This is\nconfirmed by the preservation in Wales of another tradition relating to\nthe \u201cDevil\u2019s Bridge\u201d near Beddgelert. \u201cMany of the ignorant people of\nthe neighbourhood believe that this structure was formed by supernatural\nagency. The devil proposed to the neighbouring inhabitants that he would\nbuild them a bridge across the pass on condition that he should have\nthe first who went over it for his trouble. The bargain was made, and\nthe bridge appeared in its place, but the people cheated the devil by\ndragging a dog to the spot and whipping him over the bridge.\u201d When the\nCalcutta authorities proposed to build a bridge over the Hoogly River,\nthe ignorant masses apprehended that the first requirement would be a\nhuman sacrifice for the foundation. The news went to England from the\n_London and China Telegraph_ from which the _Newcastle Chronicle_ of 9th\nFebruary 1889 copied the following statement:\u2014\n\n    \u201cThe boatmen on the Ganges, near Rajmenal, somehow came to\n    believe that the Government required a hundred thousand human\n    heads as the foundation for a great bridge, and that the\n    Government officers were going about the river in search of\n    heads. A hunting party, consisting of four Europeans, happening\n    to pass in a boat, were set upon by the one hundred and twenty\n    boatmen, with the cry _Gulla Katta_ or cut-throats, and only\n    escaped with their lives after the greatest difficulty.\u201d\n\nThirteen years ago, when the Sandhurst bridge was under construction,\na poor old man suspected of taking a child for being interred in the\nfoundations of the bridge was mercilessly belaboured in the streets of\nBombay. The boy was inclined to play truant and did not wish to go home\nwith the old man. Some one started the canard that he had sold the head\nof the child for bridge-sacrifice, the mob took it up and only after\ngreat difficulty the unfortunate man was rescued by the Police. Curiously\nenough, only a few days ago I gathered from the story of a Mahomedan lad,\nwho was brought to me for admission to the home of the Society for the\nProtection of Children, that another bridge-sacrifice panic had recently\nseized the good people of Bankipur. The boy, named Abdulla Bakar, aged\n11, being an orphan, was working as a cooly in Bankipur. He told the\nSociety\u2019s agent, and also repeated to me, that he had been greatly\nalarmed by the report he had heard in the streets of that city that\nchildren were buried alive in the foundations of a bridge that was being\nbuilt somewhere near.\n\nNo less persistent is the traditional dread of spirits haunting pools\nand rapids. Until recently we used to hear in Bombay that the spirits\nresiding in the wells near the Bombay Gymkhana waylaid and drowned\npeople who disturbed them in the evening. Similar beliefs are still\ncurrent in England. In the _Transactions of the Folklore Society_ has\nbeen recorded the following example of persistence of the superstitious\ndread of water: A man was drowned in the Derwent in January 1904. \u201cHe\ndidna know Darrant,\u201d commented an old neighbour, with a triumphant tone\nin her voice, \u201che said it were nought but a brook. But Darrant got him!\nThey never saw his head, he threw his arms up, but Darrant wouldna let\nhim go. Aye, it\u2019s a sad pity\u2014seven children! But he shouldna ha\u2019 made so\nlight of Darrant. He knows now! Nought but a brook! He knows now!\u201d \u201cShe\ntalked of the river as if it were a living personage or deity,\u201d wrote\nthe narrator, \u201cI could almost imagine the next step would be to take it\nofferings.\u201d Jenny Greenteeth still lurks under the weeds of stagnant\npools in Shropshire and Lancashire and in the following pages will be\nfound examples of numerous water-spirits residing in or hovering round\nIndian wells and tanks.\n\nFolklore tells us that mermaids threatened floods if offended by drainage\nschemes. Would that some fair denizens of the waters of Araby had raised\nup their heads from the _p\u0101t\u0101ls_ when the schemes for the drainage of\nBombay were under consideration and when Worli point was selected for\nthe outfall! On that occasion even God Varuna, the lord of all waters,\nand the Nagas and Nagins, the semi-divine sovereigns of the watery\nregions, half men and half serpents, and the whole band of sea-spirits\nwere mysteriously silent and forbearing, but the well-spirits are not so\ntame. They will not allow another municipal atrocity lying down. Some\nhave exacted the toll of human life, others have evinced their wrath by\nbreaking open the coverings enforced by the Municipality, while some weak\nspirits, for whom the concrete covers have proved too strong, have been\nhaunting the neighbourhood and inducing the owners of wells and, failing\nthem, responsive neighbours, to re-open the wells. Only a few weeks\nago, a Hindu member of the Bombay Municipal Corporation told me that a\nParsi residing in a house adjoining his property in Dhus Wadi assured\nhim that a _sayyid_ residing in the well of his house, which had been\nclosed in compliance with a municipal requisition, had been visiting the\nParsi in dreams and imploring him to get the well opened, promising him\nsaintly favours. He could not understand why the cabined spirit should\nnot seek the assistance of the Hindu inmates or of the Hindu owner of the\nvery house in which the well was situated, but go instead to the Parsi\nneighbour. The reason, however, is not far to seek.\n\nThe Bombay Parsi is a born venerator of water. He may be seen any day on\nthe beach, dipping his fingers in the water and applying it to his eyes\nand forehead, lifting his hands in prayers and wafting his soul to the\nrealms of the Great Unknown. To all that is pure, sublime and beautiful\nin the universe the Zoroastrian paid willing homage. Accordingly,\nwater-worship was a general cult amongst the Parsis in their ancestral\nhome. It was, however, a means of looking up through nature to nature\u2019s\nGod. It merely postulated the presence of a beneficent spirit permeating\nwater. There was no suggestion, whatsoever, of water-goblins haunting\nwells and springs. How, then, did the present-day Parsi come to imbibe\nthe belief in such minor deities and how did he come to give them a local\nhabitation and a name? This is a question of absorbing interest from\nthe point of view of the folklorist. India is _par excellence_ the land\nof goblindom and it is but natural that the spirit-world of the Parsis\nshould expand in the land of their adoption. With their mind attuned to\nthe worship of water they came readily under the influence of the _genii\nlocorum_. The most curious feature, however, of this Parsi belief in\nMoslem water-spirits is that amongst the Mahomedans themselves no such\nbelief prevails or ever did prevail. They believe, no doubt, in saints\nwho have endowed springs and wells, but no Mahomedan _sayyid_ or _pir_\nhas or ever had his home or haunt in water. Neither does a Mahomedan\nbelieve in any other benevolent or malevolent indwelling spirit of\nthe well. The installation of Mahomedan saints in the wells of Parsi\nhouseholds is therefore an anthropological puzzle for the solution\nof which we must make a joint appeal to history and folklore. It is\nevidently a case of substitution and amalgamation of beliefs and it is\ncases such as these that call for research in the localisation of popular\nbeliefs and their ethnic genealogy. People inhabiting modern culture\nareas have an anthropological as well as a national or political history\nand without the anthropological history it is impossible to explain the\nmeaning and existence of a number of beliefs and customs prevailing in\na particular community. It is, therefore, necessary to classify all the\nIndian cults of water according to their ethnological and geographical\ndistribution and to carry on research in the genealogy of the different\nconceptions and customs prevailing in different parts. In this way we\nmay arrive at different historical landmarks, working backwards from\nwhich we may get some glimpses of the political, social, psychological\nand religious history of the older races that lived in this country.\nWater-worship, like stone-worship, is a non-Aryan custom and without some\nresearch in the history of the non-Aryan races that dwelt in the land\nbefore the advent of the Aryans it will not be possible to account for\nthe savagery of many of the forms and rituals of this worship as it now\nprevails amongst the Aryan races.\n\n[Illustration: Parsis on the sea-beach in Bombay.]\n\n[Illustration: Offerings to the Gunbow Well.]\n\nIn the following pages I have sought to indicate what scope there is for\nsuch research work and I have devoted a special chapter to Sir Laurence\nGomme\u2019s luminous analysis of the water cults prevailing in Britain and\nits isles with a view to indicating the methods of research adopted\nby him. If we follow the same lines in tracing the ancestry of the\nIndian customs and beliefs, we may hope to throw some fresh light on\nthe cultural history of the ancestors, or at all events the immediate\npredecessors, of the people among whom we now find them prevailing. I do\nnot profess to have accomplished anything of the kind in this book. It is\nreally not want of time so much as the consciousness of sheer inability\nto do justice to the theme that has deterred me from launching upon a\nscientific survey of the varying forms of water-worship. Circumstances\npermitting, after further study and research, I may venture to essay it\nand place before the public a more studied and comprehensive volume on\nthe subject, meanwhile this little book will not have been published in\nvain if it leads some student of anthropology to embark on such a survey\nand I shall be better pleased indeed to see this fascinating subject\ncomprehensively dealt with by one of the masters of the science of\nfolklore.\n\nI trust I have duly acknowledged, at the proper places, all the\nauthorities I have consulted. I cannot conclude, however, without\nexpressing my special indebtedness to the works of that distinguished\nTown Clerk and student of local lore, the late Sir Laurence Gomme.\nMy thanks are also due to my esteemed teacher and friend, Mr. J. D.\nBharda, for the interest he has taken in this work and for his helpful\nsuggestions when the sheets were passing through the press.\n\n                                                                 R. P. M.\n\nBOMBAY, _March 21st, 1918_.\n\n\n\n\nPART I.\n\nFOLKLORE OF BOMBAY WELLS.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nSANCTITY OF WATER.\n\n\nTime was when the whole earth, the fever-stricken isle of Bombay\nincluded, was free from fevers. One unlucky day, however, Daksha\nPrajapati and his son-in-law Shiva fell out and their discord brought\nwith it a whole crop of fevers. The story runs that Daksha Prajapati\nonce celebrated a great sacrifice to which he did not invite Shiva. All\nhumanity had to suffer for this insult which greatly incensed Shiva whose\nbreath during those moments of fury emitted eight frightful fevers.\n\nIn the good old days, however, a magic thread (_dora_), or a charm\n(_mantra_), was enough to scare the fever-spirit away.[1] In obstinate\ncases, no doubt, the spirit had to be exorcised from the body of the\npatient by a _Bhuva_ or _Bhagat_ and transferred to some animate or\ninanimate object, or perhaps a cock or a goat or a buffalo had to be\nsacrificed to propitiate the disease-deity. That, however, was all. A\nspecial offering for the Benares godling _Jvarahar\u00edsvara_, \u201cthe god who\nrepels the fever,\u201d was _Dudhbhanga_, a confection of milk (_dudh_),\nleaves of the hemp plant (_bhanga_) and sweets.\n\nOf all such remedies and expedients the simplest and the quaintest was\nthat for driving the malaria fiend away. One had only to listen to the\nstory of _Ek\u0101nterio_, the spirit controlling intermittent fever, and one\ngot immunity for ever. The legend runs that once a Bania, on his way to\na village, came across a banyan tree where he unyoked his bullocks and\nwent to a distance in search of water. _Ek\u0101nterio_, who resided in this\ntree, carried away the Bania\u2019s carriage together with his family. The\nBania was much surprised to miss them, but he soon found out the author\nof the trick and pursued _Ek\u0101nterio_. That fever-goblin, however, would\nnot listen to the Bania\u2019s entreaties to return his carriage, and the\nmatter was at last referred for arbitration to Bochki Bai. She decided in\nfavour of the Bania, and confined _Ek\u0101nterio_ in a bamboo tube whence he\nwas released on condition that he would never attack those who listened\nto this story.[2]\n\nTo-day in our midst there are no such story-tellers, no such Bhuvas and\nmedicine-men, or, if there are any, they are seldom given a chance. We\nrather like to listen to the stories of the microscope and pin our faith\nto the doctor and the scientist. These men of science scent _Ek\u0101nterio_\nin every anopheles mosquito and tell us that malarial fever is conveyed\nfrom one human being to another by the bite of this ubiquitous insect.\nTherefore, if we wish to stamp out malaria, we must wage a crusade\nagainst this vast army of _Ek\u0101nterio_. It is well known that these\nmosquitoes breed in water and that they are particularly fond of well\nwater. One of the measures that the Bombay Municipality has therefore to\nenforce in connection with its campaign against malaria is the closing\nof wells containing the larv\u00e6 of these mosquitoes. In the early stages\nof the campaign, however, it gave rise to vehement protests. These\nwere prompted not merely by utilitarian motives, but also by religious\nsentiments and supernatural beliefs. The aggrieved parties gave chapter\nand verse to show that their scriptures enjoined the use of well water,\nand well water only, in connection with divers ceremonies, and they\nfurther relied on several popular beliefs investing the water of wells\nwith supernatural efficacy. We shall record a few typical examples of\nsuch beliefs and convictions and a few traditions concerning several\nwells of Bombay, culled from the official correspondence on the subject\nand other sources, and we shall see in the course of our survey that\nthese merely present, with a little local colouring, the particular\nprimitive phase of nature-worship under which all nations inhabiting the\nglobe have held in the past, and do hold to a certain extent even now,\nsprings and wells in religious reverence and awe, regarding the water\nthereof as a living organism or as a dwelling-place of spirits.\n\nWhen the owner of an objectionable well is asked by the Municipality\neither to fill up the well or to cover it, he invariably prefers the\nsecond alternative, provided he is allowed to cover the well with wire\ngauze or at least to provide a wire gauze trap-door for drawing water.\nThe reason given in most of the cases is that according to tenets and\nestablished customs the water required for religious ceremonies must be\nexposed directly to the rays of the sun and that water not so exposed is\nrendered unfit for the purpose. The Parsis cite their scriptures and the\nHindus theirs in support of this contention. It is unnecessary for our\npresent purpose to quote the injunctions of the scriptures, but it is\ninteresting to note how they are construed and understood.\n\nWhen the Health Officer, Dr. J. A. Turner, was overwhelmed by all sorts\nof religious objections to the closing of wells, he consulted recognised\nauthorities on Parsi religion as to the precise requirements of the\nscriptures and the manner in which the object of the Department could\nbe carried out without wounding the religious susceptibilities of the\nParsis. Dr. J. J. Modi gave his opinion as follows, referring to a\nceremony of peculiar interest to the students of scriptural lore:\u2014\n\n\u201cAs, according to Parsi books, the sun is considered to be a great\npurifier, it is required that the well must be exposed to the rays of the\nsun. So a well hermetically covered with wood or metal is prohibited.\nBut one \u2018hermetically covered with wire gauze of very fine mesh,\u2019 as\nsuggested by you, would serve the purpose and would, I think, serve the\nScriptural requirement. As to the question of drawing water from such\na well, a part of the three principal ceremonies performed at a Fire\nTemple is known as that of _Jor-melavvi_ (lit. to unite the Zaothra or\nceremonial water with its source). As we speak of \u2018dust to dust,\u2019 _i.e._,\none born from dust is in the end reduced to dust, this part of the\nceremonial which symbolizes the circulation of water from the earth to\nthe air and from the air to the earth requires what we may, on a similar\nanalogy, speak of as the transference of \u2018water to water.\u2019 It requires\nthat a part of the water drawn for ceremonial purposes from the well\nmust be in the end returned to its source\u2014the well. So, the provision\nof the air-pump, will not, I am afraid, meet all the requirements. I\nwould therefore suggest that in addition to the hand-pump, a small\nclose-fitting opening, also made of wire-gauze of fine mesh, may be\nprovided.\u201d\n\nShams-ul-ulma Darab Dastur Peshotan Sanjana also gave his opinion to the\nsame effect and the recommendation of these two scholars was accepted by\nthe Department.\n\nNo Hindu _savant_ appears to have been consulted on the subject, but\na few gems selected from the petitions and protests received by the\nMunicipal authorities will throw some light on the traditions and customs\nof the different Hindu sects. In a letter to the Standing Committee the\nTrustees of the Derasar Sadharan Funds of the temple of Shri Anantnathji\nMaharaj represented that according to the scriptures of the Jains water\nused for religious ceremonies \u201cmust be drawn _at one stretch_ from a well\nover which the rays of the sun and the light of the moon fall constantly\nand which must therefore be open to the sky and no other water could be\nused at such ceremonies.\u201d\n\nIn another letter to the Committee Messrs. Payne & Co., Solicitors,\nwrote on behalf of their client Mr. Kikabhoy Premchand: \u201cOur client is a\nstaunch Hindu of old idea and he requires the use of water from _seven_\nwells for religious ceremonies. For this purpose he uses the two wells\nin question and has to go to neighbouring properties to make up the full\nnumber of seven wells. Water drawn by means of a pump cannot be used for\nreligious purposes and it is absolutely necessary that both the wells\nshould be provided with trap-doors.\u201d\n\nEven a trap-door would not satisfy the scruples of a large number.\nMessrs. Mehta, Dalpatram and Laljee, Solicitors, represented that the\nMarjadis never used pipe water, and they observed: \u201cAccording to the\nMarjadi principles if any pot containing water touches any part of the\ntrap-door, the water cannot be used for any purpose and the pot must be\nplaced in fire and purified before it can be used again. As, however,\nit is exceedingly difficult whilst drawing water to prevent the vessel\nfrom coming into contact with the trap-door, the provision of such door\ninstead of being a convenience is the cause of much needless irritation\nand annoyance.\u201d\n\nMr. Goculdas Damodar went a step further and urged that his Marjadi\ntenants \u201cwere drawing water out of the well only in sackcloth buckets and\nany other means would conflict with their religious scruples.\u201d\n\nMr. Sunderrao D. Navalkar raised a further objection. \u201cBy asking me to\ncover the well,\u201d wrote he, \u201cyou will be interfering in our religious\nceremony of lighting a lamp in the niche in the well and performing other\nceremonies regarding it.\u201d\n\nThe least objectionable expedient for protecting wells from the malarial\nmosquito was to stock them with fish. In many cases it was cheerfully\nresorted to as an experimental measure for killing the larv\u00e6. But even\nthis simple remedy was not acceptable to some. In objecting to it a\nmember of the Jain community submitted that the fish would devour the\nlarv\u00e6 and that it was against his religion to do any harm to insect life.\nIt, however, required no very great efforts of casuistry to induce him\nto believe that it would be no transgression on _his_ part if he merely\nallowed the Department to put the fish into the well.\n\nThis incident reminds one of the beliefs current among the great unwashed\nsect of the Jains known as the _Dhundhias_. These tender-hearted people\nconsider it a sin to wash, as water used for bathing or washing purposes\nis likely to destroy the germs in it. India is indeed a country of\nbewildering paradoxes. The Hindu _Shastras_ enjoin a complete bath not\nmerely if one happens to touch any untouchable thing or person, but\neven if one\u2019s ears are assailed by the voice of a non-Hindu (_Yavana_).\nNevertheless, in this bath-ridden country of religious impressionability\nand, what may appear to the western people, hyperbolic piety, people\nlike the _Dhundhias_ abound. There are also certain Banias who, during\nthe whole of the winter, consider it useless to have anything to do with\nwater beyond washing their hands and face.[3]\n\nWith this practice of abstinence from washing may be compared the custom\nprevailing all over Greece of refraining from washing during the days\nof the Drymais. No washing is done there during those days because the\nDrymais, the evil spirits of the waters, are supposed to be then reigning.\n\nLet us now turn from these quaint religious customs concerning the use\nof well water to some of the beliefs of the people in the existence of\nspirits residing in the wells of Bombay.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nWATER SAINTS.\n\n\nWhen owners of houses are asked to fill up their wells or to cover them,\nthey generally apply for permission to provide a wire-gauze cover or a\ntrap-door. In not a few of these cases the application is prompted either\nby a desire \u201cto enable the spirits in the well to come out,\u201d or by the\nfear \u201clest the spirits should bring disaster\u201d if they were absolutely\nshut up.\n\nMr. Gamanlal F. Dalal, Solicitor, once wrote on behalf of a client,\nregarding his well in Khetwadi Main Road:\u2014\n\n\u201cMy client and his family believe that there is a saintly being in the\nwell and they always personally see the angelic form of the said being\nmoving in the compound at night and they always worship the said being\nin the well, and they have a bitter experience of filling the well or\nclosing it up hermetically because in or about the year 1902 my client\ndid actually fill up the well to its top but on the very night on\nwhich it was so filled up all the members of my client\u2019s family fell\ndangerously ill and got a dream that unless the well was again re-opened\nand kept open to the sky, they would never recover. The very next day\nthereafter they had again to dig out the earth with which the well had\nbeen filled up and they only recovered when the well was completely\nopened to the sky.\u201d\n\nA Parsi gentleman, who owns a house on Falkland Road, was served with a\nnotice to hermetically cover the well. He complied with the requisition.\nAfter about a month he went to Dr. K. B. Shroff, Special Officer,\nMalaria, complaining that he had lost his son and that he had himself\nbeen suffering from palpitation of the heart. This he attributed to the\nclosing of the well.\n\nSimilarly, a Parsi lady in Wanka Moholla, Dhobi Talao, informed Dr.\nShroff that since the closing of the well in her house her husband had\nbeen constantly getting ill. Likewise, a Parsi gentleman living in the\nsame locality complained that he was struck with paralysis for having\nsealed his well hermetically.\n\nThese spirits are believed to influence not only the health and strength\nof their victims but also their fortunes. In Edwardes Theatre on\nKalbadevi Road there was a well, which was filled in by its considerate\nowner of his own accord during the construction of the building.\nSubsequently, the owner went to the Malaria Officer and informed him that\nno Indian Theatrical Company would have his theatre as the proprietors\nhad a sentimental objection pertaining to the well, and that it was\nbelieved that European Companies also did not make any profit, as the\nspirit in the well had been playing mischief. He therefore applied for\npermission to re-open the well, promising at the same time that he\nwould cover it over again so as to let the spirit have \u201ca free play\nin the water.\u201d This request was granted and the work was carried out\naccordingly. \u201cRecently I was informed,\u201d says Dr. Shroff, \u201cthat the\ntheatre was doing better.\u201d\n\nSometimes the pent-up spirits are not so vindictive. Instead of ruining\nthe owners of the wells in which they are shut up, they vent their ire\nby merely breaking open the barriers. A Parsi lady in Cowasji Patel\nStreet, Fort, owned a large well about 25 to 30 feet in diameter. The\nDepartmental deities ordered that the well should be covered over. After\nhalf the work of covering the well had been done, the concrete gave way.\nThe lady went running to the Malaria Officer urging that that was the\nresult of offending the presiding spirit of the well and imploring him\nto cancel the requisition.[4] The Malaria Officer, however, remained\nunmoved by the fear of rousing the ire of the water wraith and the\ndejected lady left his house greatly incensed and probably firmly\nconvinced that the wrath of the spirit would soon be visited on that\ncallous Officer. He is, however, still hale and hearty. What he did to\nappease the spirit or what amulet he wears to charm the water-goblins\naway, is not known. However, this much is certain, that he has not\nescaped the furious cannon-fire of all the well-worshippers in Bombay\nduring the last four years.\n\nWhatever may be the attitude of hardened scientists in this matter, there\nis no doubt that these well-spirits are everywhere held by the people in\ngreat reverence and awe. Whether one believes in their existence, or is\ninclined to be sceptical on that point, wells supposed to harbour spirits\nare scrupulously left undisturbed. Mr. Rustomji Byramji Jeejeebhoy, whose\nfamily is known both for munificence and culture, wrote in the following\nterms with regard to a well in Alice Building, Hornby Road:\u2014\n\n\u201cThere is a superstition connected with the well. It is well-known all\nover this part of the town that the well is said to be a sacred well and\nmuch sanctity is attached to it. Out of deference to this superstition,\nI had in designing Alice Building to so design it as to leave the well\nalone. To me personally the well is of no use, but those who believe in\nthe superstition come and pray near the well and present offerings of\nflowers and cocoanuts to it.\u201d\n\nNot only owners of wells but also building contractors are averse to\ndisturbing water-spirits. When the Parsi contractor who built the Alice\nBuildings had done work worth about Rs. 35,000, he was informed that it\nhad been proposed that the well had better be filled up. He said he was\nprepared to give up the work and forego all his claims rather than lay\nirreverent hands on that sacred well.\n\nOnce you instal a natural object in the position of a deity, the idea\nthat the deified power demands offerings and can be easily cajoled\ninvariably follows, probably based on the conviction that every man has\nhis price! Offerings to well-spirits are, therefore, believed to insure\ngood luck and to avert calamities. One day a Parsi lady went to Dr.\nShroff in great excitement and begged of him not to insist on the well\nof her house in Charni Road being closed. The well, she urged, was held\nin great reverence by people of all communities. Only the day previous,\nwhile she was driving in a carriage to the house to offer a cocoanut,\nsugar and flowers to the well, she narrowly escaped a serious accident,\nthanks to the protection offered by the well-spirit.\n\nTwo sisters owned a house in Dhunji Street near Pydhowni. They were\nserved with a notice to cover the well of the house. One of the sisters\nwent running to the Malaria Officer beseeching him to cancel the notice.\nShe said that her invalid sister strongly believed in the efficacy of\nthe worship of the well and never went to bed without worshipping it and\noffering it flowers. \u201cMy poor sister would simply go mad if she sees\nthe well covered over,\u201d she cried, and she would not leave Dr. Shroff\u2019s\noffice until that unchivalrous officer left her alone and slipped into\nanother room.\n\nSeveral wells are believed to harbour spirits possessing occult powers\nand faculties for giving omens. One such oracular well may be seen in\nGhoga Street, Fort. The owner of the house, a Parsi, was allowed, in the\nfirst instance, to stock the well with fish so as to clear it of the\nmalaria mosquitoes. This, however, failed to give satisfactory results\nand there was no alternative but to demand a covering. The owner on the\nother hand pleaded that the well had been held in great veneration by\nall classes of people and had so high a reputation for divination that\nmany persons visited it at midnight to \u201cenquire about their wishes.\u201d\n\u201cAbout eight to twelve ladies (of whom none should be a widow) stand\nsurrounding the well at midnight and ask questions. If any good is going\nto happen, fire will be seen on the surface of the water.\u201d The owner\nassured Dr. Shroff that he himself had been an eye-witness to these\nphenomena.\n\nIndian folklore abounds in stories belonging to the same group. Neither\nare such stories unknown to the European folklorist. We shall notice\nin due course several oracular and wishing wells in India and other\ncountries, but the ceremony described by the Parsi owner is purely\nlocal and typical. So far as I have been able to ascertain, there is no\nparallel for it in the literature of well-worship. Peculiar also is the\nhour fixed for the ceremony. Generally, visiting wells in the midnight\nor even midday is believed to bring disasters. It seems, however, from\nan account of a rite described by Miss Burne in Shropshire Folklore that\nanyone wishing to resort to St. Oswall\u2019s Well at Oswestry had also to go\nto the well at midnight. The ceremony was of course different. It simply\nrequired that the votary had to take some water up in the hand and drink\npart of it, at the same time forming a wish in the mind, and to throw the\nrest of the water upon a particular stone at the back of the well. If\nhe succeeded in throwing all the water left in his hand upon that stone\nwithout touching any other spot, his wish would be fulfilled.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nPENALTY FOR DEFILEMENT.\n\n\nA tenant of the same house in Ghoga Street informed Dr. Shroff that a\ncooly spat on the pavement surrounding the oracular well with the result\nthat he died instantly on the spot for having defiled the holy ground.\nThis reminds me of a story related to me about three years ago of a\nEuropean girl who took suddenly ill and died within a day or two after\nshe had kicked aside a stone kept near the pavement of a well in Loveji\nCastle at Parel. On this stone people used to put their offerings to the\nsaintly spirit of the place known by the name of Kaffri B\u00e2w\u00e2. Many are\nthe stories I have heard of this spirit from a lady who spent her youth\nin Loveji Castle, but as this was a tree-spirit and not a well-spirit,\nthose tales would be out of place here.\n\nAs well-water is used for religious ceremonies, wells and their\nsurroundings are generally kept clean by the Parsis and Hindus alike, but\nthere is a further incentive to cleanliness in the case of wells which\nare regarded as dwelling-places of spirits. It is a common conviction\nthat any act of defilement, whether conscious or unconscious, offends\nthe spirits and all sorts of calamities are attributed to such acts. At\nthe junction of Ghoga Street and Cowasjee Patel Street stands the once\nfamous house of Nowroji Wadia. Some years ago the property changed hands.\nCertain alterations were made in the building and in consequence a place\nwas set apart close to the well for keeping dead bodies before disposal.\nThis brought disasters after disasters. Deaths after deaths took place in\nthe house and bereavements after bereavements ruined the owner\u2019s family.\nToo late in the day was it realized that the nymphs living in the well\nshould not have been thus insulted. Once a well in Barber Lane overflowed\nfor days together, emitting foul water. It did not occur to anyone to\nascribe this to the sewer-sprite who had just commenced his pranks in\nBombay. Instead, the mischief was unanimously fathered on a Parsi cook\nand his wife who used to sleep near the parapet of the well.\n\nFrom ancient times contiguity of a corpse to water has been regarded as\na source of defilement. In \u201cPrimitive Semitic Religion To-day\u201d (1902),\nProfessor Samuel Curtiss says that he was told by Abdul Khalil, Syrian\nProtestant teacher at Damascus, that \u201cif a corpse passes by a house,\nthe common people pour the water out from the jars.\u201d With this idea of\npollution of water was blended the conviction that the defilement of the\nwater of a well or spring was tantamount to the defilement of the spirits\nor saints residing near them. Once two sects of Mahomedans in Damascus\nfell out. One section held the other responsible for the displeasure of\na saint on the ground that it had performed certain ablutions in the\ncourtyard of his shrine and that \u201cthe dirt had come on the saint to his\ndisgust.\u201d\n\nIn Brittany it is still a popular belief that those who pollute wells\nby throwing into them rubbish or stones will perish by lightning.[5]\nIn the prologue to _Chr\u00e9tiens Conte du Graal_ there is an account,\nseemingly very ancient, of how dishonour to the divinities of wells and\nsprings brought destruction on the rich land of Logres. The damsels who\nresided in these watery places fed travellers with nourishing food until\nKing Amangons wronged one of them by carrying off her golden cup. His\nmen followed his evil example, so that the springs dried up, the grass\nwithered, and the land became waste.[6]\n\nBefore the well of Nowroji Wadia\u2019s house was unwittingly defiled, the\npresiding fairies of the well used to sing and play in it, but this\nentertainment ceased after the place had been polluted. Another well,\nfamous for the concerts of the nymphs, was a well belonging to the Baxter\nfamily in Bhattiawad. There, too, the water damsels regaled the ears of\nthe inmates with music. I say this on the authority of an old lady who\nused to enjoy those subterranean melodies.\n\nThere is a fountain called \u201cthe pure one,\u201d in Egypt. If anyone that is\nimpure through pollution or menstruation touches the water, it begins at\nonce to stink, and does not cease until one pours out the water of the\nfountain and cleans it. Then only it regains its fine smell.\n\nAkin to this tradition is the Esthonian belief concerning the sanctity\nof water. In Esthonia there is a stream Wohhanda which has long been\nthe object of reverence. No Esthonian would fell any tree that grew on\nits banks or break any reed that fringed its watercourse. If he did, he\nwould die within the year. The brook was purified periodically and it was\nbelieved that if dirt was thrown into it, bad weather would follow. The\nriver-god resident in the stream was in the habit of occasionally rising\nout of it and those who saw him described him as a little man in blue and\nyellow stockings. Like other river wraiths, whom we shall accost later,\nthis water-sprite also demanded human sacrifices, and tradition records\nofferings of little children made to Wohhanda.[7] When a German landowner\nventured to build a mill and dishonour the water, bad seasons followed\nyear after year, and the country-people burned down the abominable thing.\n\nA strange variant of the popular belief concerning pollution of wells\nis found in the curious custom of deliberately defiling wells with the\nobject of disturbing the water-spirit and thus compelling him to produce\nrain. It was a common belief among several nations that one of the ways\nof constraining the rain-god was to disturb him in his haunts. Thus when\nrain was long coming in the Canary Islands, the priestesses used to beat\nthe sea with rods to punish the water-spirit for his niggardliness. In\nthe same way the Dards, one of the tribes of the _Hindu-Kush_, believe\nthat if a cow-skin or anything impure is placed in certain springs, storm\nwill follow. In the mountains of Farghana there was a place where it\nbegan to rain as soon as anything dirty was thrown into a famous well. In\nhis famous work on the Chronology of Ancient Nations, _Ath\u00e1r-ul-Bakiya_,\nAlbiruni refers to this phenomenon and asks for an explanation. \u201cAnd\nhow,\u201d he inquires, \u201cdo you account for the place called \u201cthe shop of\n_Solomon_, the son of David,\u201d in the cave called Ispahbadhan in the\nmountain of T\u00e2k in Tabaristan, where heaven becomes cloudy as soon as\nyou defile it by filth or by milk, and where it rains until you clean\nit again? And how do you account for the mountain in the country of the\nTurks? For if the sheep pass over it, people wrap their feet in wool\nto prevent their touching the rock of the mountain. For if they touch\nit, heavy rain immediately follows.\u201d These things, says the author, are\nnatural peculiarities of the created beings, the causes of which are\nto be traced back to the simple elements and to the beginning of all\ncomposition and creation. \u201cAnd there is no possibility that our knowledge\nshould ever penetrate to subjects of this description.\u201d\n\nThis doctrine of negation of knowledge is typical of Persian poets and\nphilosophers. The poet Fakhra Razi has beautifully expressed the idea\nin the following words:\u2014\u201cI thought and thought each night and morn for\nseventy years and two, but came to know this, that nothing can be known.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nQUAINT PARSI BELIEFS.\n\n\nClose by Nowroji Wadia\u2019s house was another habitat of spirits. The owner\nof the house, a Parsi lady, was asked to cover it. In view of the sad\nexperience of the fate of the owner of the neighbouring house she was\nreluctant to do anything that might offend the spirits, but the Malaria\nDepartment was insistent. She therefore first implored the presiding\ndeities of the well to forgive her as she had no option in the matter,\nand then consented to cover the well provided a wire-gauze trap-door was\nallowed so as not to interfere with the work of worship. I understand\nthat on every full moon eve she opens the trap-door, garlands the well\nand offers her _puja_ there.\n\nFurther down the same street, once renowned for the abodes of Parsi\n_Shethias_, is a house belonging to a well-known Parsi family. A well in\nthis house was and still is most devoutly worshipped by the inmates of\nthe house. I hear from a very reliable source that whenever any member of\nthe family got married, it was the practice to sacrifice a goat to the\nwell-spirit, to dip a finger in the blood of the victim and to anoint\nthe bride or bridegroom on the forehead with a mark of the blood. Once\nhowever this ceremony was overlooked and, as fate would have it, the\nbridegroom died within forty days.\n\nThis practice of besmearing the forehead with the blood of the\nsacrifice is a survival of primitive ideas concerning blood-shedding\nand blood-sprinkling, the taking of the blood from the place where the\nsacrifice was given being regarded as equivalent to taking the blessing\nof the place and putting it on the person anointed with the blood. Thus\nwhen an Arab matron slaughters a goat or a sheep vowed in her son\u2019s\nbehalf, she takes some of the blood and puts it on his skin. Similarly,\nwhen a barren couple that has promised a sacrifice to a saint in return\nfor a child is blest with the joys of parenthood, the sacrifice is given\nand the blood of the animal is put _on the forehead_ of the child.\n\nRemarkable as is the survival of this primitive ritual in Bombay and\nits prevalence amongst people such as the Parsis, there is nothing very\nextraordinary about it. A little patch of savagery as it appears to be in\nthe midst of fair fields and pastures new of western culture, it merely\naffords an illustration of the fact that localities preserve relics\nof a people much older than those who now inhabit them. It also shows\nthat various systems of local fetichism found in Aryan Countries merely\nrepresent the undying beliefs and customs of a primitive race which the\nAryans eventually incorporated into their own beliefs and rituals, for it\nwill be seen as we proceed that in India as in Great Britain the entire\ncult of well-worship was imbibed rather than engendered by Aryan culture.\n\nWhat, however, is most extraordinary is that of all the communities in\nBombay the Parsis show the greatest susceptibility to these beliefs.\nAmongst the Hindus worship of water is, no doubt, universal. Belief in\nspirits is also general amongst them. Amongst these spirits there are\nwater-goblins also, _Jalachar_, as contrasted with _Bhuchar_, spirits\nhovering on earth, mostly inimical, _m\u00e2t\u00e2s_ and _sankhinis_, _bhuts_, and\n_prets_ who hover round wells and tanks, particularly the wayside ones,\nand drown or enter the persons of those who go near their haunts. Many of\nthese goblins are the spirits of those who have met with an accidental\ndeath or the souls that have not received the funeral _pindas_ with the\nproper obsequies. The Hindus believe that these fallen souls reside in\ntheir _avagati_, or degraded condition, near the scene of their death\nand molest those who approach it. Almost all the old wells in the Maidan\nwere in this way believed to be the haunts of such spirits who claimed\ntheir annual toll without fail. Thus it was believed that the well that\nstood in the rear of the Bombay Gymkhana must needs have at least three\nvictims, and sure enough there were at least three cases of suicide\nin that well during a year! However, so far as domestic well-spirits\nare concerned, while almost all the wells of a Parsi house were until\nrecently and many of them still are under the protection of a _B\u00e2w\u00e2_, or\n_Sayyid_, or _Pir_, or _Jinn_, or _Pari_, or other spirits, one rarely\ncomes across such wells in Hindu household. Wells are worshipped by the\nHindus no doubt, without exception, but it is the sacred character of the\nwater that accounts for the worship, not the belief in the existence of\nwell-spirits. Again, as a result of my investigations, I find that the\nworship of wells amongst the Parsi community is in some cases much ruder\nand more primitive than amongst the Hindus. What can be the explanation\nfor it? Is it simply a continuation of their own old beliefs in the land\nof their adoption? Is it merely old wine in new bottles?\n\nWater-worship was, no doubt, a general cult with the Parsis in their\nancestral home. Of the antiquity of this worship amongst them we have\nample evidence in their scriptures. In the _Aban Yesht_ the spring is\naddressed as a mighty goddess, _Ardevi Sura Anahita_, strong, sublime,\nspotless, erroneously equated by some authors with the Mylitta of the\nBabylonians and the Aphrodite of the Greeks. Ahurarmazda calls upon\nZarathushtra to worship _Ardevi Sura Anahita_:\u2014\n\n    The wide-expanding, the healing,\n    Foe to the demons, of Ahura\u2019s Faith,\n    Worthy of sacrifice in the material world,\n    Worthy of prayer in the material world,\n    Life-increasing, the righteous,\n    Herd-increasing, the righteous,\n    Food-increasing, the righteous,\n    Wealth-increasing, the righteous,\n    Country-increasing, the righteous.\n\n    Who purifies the seed of all males,\n    Who purifies the womb of\n    All females for bearing.[8]\n    Who makes all females have easy childbirth,\n    Who bestows upon all females\n    Right (and) timely milk.\n\n    All the shores around the Sea Vourukasha\n    Are in commotion,\n    The whole middle is bubbling up,\n    When she flows forth unto them,\n    When she streams forth unto them,\n    Ardevi Sura Anahita.\n\n    To whom belong a thousand lakes,\n    To whom a thousand outlets;\n    Any one of these lakes\n    And any of these outlets\n    (Is) a forty days\u2019 ride\n    For a man mounted on a good horse.\n\n    Whom I, Ahura Mazda, by movement of tongue\n    Brought forth for the furtherance of the house,\n    For the furtherance of the village, town and country.\n\nThe chariot of _Banu Ardevi Sura_ is drawn by four white horses who\nbaffle all the devils. Ahuramazda is said to have worshipped her in order\nto secure her assistance in inducing Zarathushtra to become his prophet,\nand the example set by Him was followed by the great kings and heroes of\nancient Iran. It is conceivable that this tribal cult accompanied the\ndevout descendants of the ancient Persians wherever they went and that\nwith their mind attuned to the worship of water they readily came under\nthe influence of the _genii locorum_ in the different parts of this\ncountry and adopted some of the local rituals of the people who resided\nthere before them. But the question then arises, who were the people\nfrom whom they borrowed these beliefs and rituals? Most of the guardian\nangels of their wells point to a Mahomedan origin, and yet amongst the\nfollowers of Islam well-worship is conspicuous by its absence. They have,\nno doubt, their _Sayyids_ and _Pirs_ in abundance, almost every shrine\nof theirs has its presiding saint, but they scarcely believe in any\nspirit residing in wells. In fact, one may safely say that well-worship\namongst these people has died out, if ever it did exist before. During\nmy investigation I have not come across a single case of such worship\namongst them and all the Mahomedans whom I have consulted testify to the\nabsence of these beliefs among them. How then, do we account for the\nMahomedan patron saints of the wells of Parsi houses? It clearly cannot\nbe a case of preservation of old wine in new jars. The intensely local\ncolouring does not warrant any such assumption. There are distinctly\nnon-Parsi ingredients in it. From whom and how did they get these?\nWell-spirits, like tree-spirits, form no part of any tribal cult. They\nare essentially local in nature and the subject needs careful research\nin the localisation of beliefs and the genealogy of folklore. We shall\nadvert to this subject again,[9] meanwhile let us record a few more\ninstances of sanctified wells in Bombay.\n\nA well of which I heard during my childhood several thrilling stories of\na somewhat singular type was situated in a house in Nanabhoy Lane, Fort,\nopposite the Banaji Fire-Temple, which belonged to my great grand-mother.\nIt was believed to be the abode of a kind-hearted _Sayyid_ (Mahomedan\nsaint) who used to watch the health and fortunes of the inmates of the\nhouse. Women in labour preferred for confinement no other place to this\nauspicious house always mercifully protected by that guardian angel.\nIt is said that he used to come out of the well regularly and that\nhis presence was known by the ecstatic possession of a Parsi woman who\nused to live on the ground floor. A big basin of _maleeda_ (confection\nof wheat flour) was offered to him by the ladies. It was emptied in a\nfew moments. The inmates of the house related to the saint all their\ndifficulties and each one got a soothing reply and friendly hints through\nthe lips of the medium. A young lady used to suffer from constant\nheadache. Her grand-mother one day asked the _Sayyid_ what to do to cure\nthe ailment. He gave her a betel-nut and told her that it should always\nbe kept by the girl with her. This was done and she never suffered from\nheadache again. An old inmate of the house was once seriously ill. All\nhopes of recovery were abandoned, but the saint came to his rescue and\nadvised the relatives as to what they should do to propitiate the sea\nfuries who wanted to devour the man. After the furies were propitiated as\nadvised, the man recovered.\n\nOne or two more stories of Bombay wells known after the names of the\nsaintly spirits residing in them may be noted. The Gunbow Lane is\nknown after the famous well in the locality. It is generally believed\nthat the well was sacred to the Saint (_b\u00e2w\u00e2_) Gun who resorted to it.\nThe Bombay City Gazetteer, however, informs us that \u201cthe curious name\n_Gunbow_ is probably a corruption of _Gunba_, the name of an ancestor of\nMr. Jagannath Shankersett.\u201d Old records show that Gunba Seti or Gunba\nShet settled in Bombay during the first quarter of the 18th century and\nfounded a mercantile firm within the Fort walls. This Gunbow well was so\nbig that it was believed that a man could swim from its bottom to another\nin the compound of the Manockji Seth Wadi about 500 feet away. Report\nhas it that swimmers even used to find their way as far as the wells on\nthe Maidan beyond Hornby Road. When it was proposed to fill in the well,\nstrong representations were made to the effect that an opening for the\nwell spirit should be kept, and a portion was left open for years. This\ntoo has been now covered over, but people still take their offerings to\nthe site. In the same way, a well in the lane by the side of the Manockji\nSeth\u2019s Agiary leading to Mint Road, which has been covered over, is seen\nstrewn with flowers and other offerings.\n\nAnother well in Ghoga Street was believed to be the dwelling place of a\nMahomedan saint, _Murgha B\u00e2w\u00e2_. \u201cMurgha\u201d is believed to be a corruption\nof Yusuf Murgay, who owned houses in the street which was also known\nafter his name as _Murgha Sheri_. An esteemed friend, who used to reside\nin the house containing this well, tells me that the well was held in\ngreat reverence by the Parsi families residing in the locality. Various\nofferings were made, the principal of which was a black _murgha_ or fowl,\nthe common victim of such sacrifices. It was believed that in the still\nhours of the night the saint used to come out of the well and move about\nin the house. His steps were heard distinctly on the staircase and his\npresence was announced by the creaking sound that was heard round about.\nBut my friend, who used to burn midnight oil in that house during his\ncollege days and who has since been wedded to science, is inclined to\nthink that the footsteps were those of the rats infesting the house and\nthat the creaking sound was made by the wooden book-cases!\n\nA Parsi lady who lived in the same house says that people from various\nparts of the town used to take offerings to the spirit of the well,\namongst which were big _thalis_ (trays) of sweetmeat. Children were asked\nnot to touch these, but this young lady freely helped herself to those\nsweets. Another friend, who took similar liberties with the offerings,\nwas Mr. Jamsetji Nadirshaw. He used to live in Mapla\u2019s house in old\nModikhana. The well of this house was adored by people and young Jamsetji\npilfered a lot of sweets offered to the gods. Sir Dinsha Edulji Wacha,\nwho lived in the house during his childhood, informs me that his mother\nand grand-mother used to tell him many a thrilling story of the queer\nways in which the guardian spirit of the well used to divert them.\n\nA friend living in Karwar Street (Modi Khana) says that the well of\nhis house is sacred to a Mahomedan _pir_ and that to this day vows are\noffered to the saint and his blessings sought whenever the tenants are in\ndifficulty. On the full moon day the well is decorated with flowers and\nthe saint is implored to cure cases of illness which defy the doctor\u2019s\nskill. Needless to say, these offerings and prayers are speedily followed\nby the recovery of the patients.\n\nAnother well in Parsi Bazar Street is also believed to harbour a\nbeneficent _pir_. Only four years ago, a friend was informed that when\ndoctors despaired of curing a patient, a Parsi carpenter suggested that\nthe well spirit should be implored to save the patient. He brought\ncertain people versed in the art of propitiating spirits and asked them\nto try their skill. They gratified the well-spirit by placing grain and\nother offerings on the surface of the water and by remaining in the water\nfor days together, muttering incantations. The patient was thoroughly\ncured and, no wonder, he attributes the cure to the grace of the water\nsaint.\n\nThese folk beliefs in the efficacy of well-water and the influence of the\nspirits dwelling in it are, as already observed, in no way peculiar to\nthe City of Bombay or to other parts of the country of India and present\nno new phase of human thought. They are common to the whole world. In the\nconcept of primeval man everything had its spirit. Particularly did it\nassociate life with motion. The spring was ever flowing, ever bountiful,\never refreshing and fertilizing and came to be regarded as a living\norganism, a benevolent spirit supplying man with the prime necessity\nof life and endowed with purifying and healing qualities. Everywhere,\ntherefore, the source of this quickening element that had such charms\ncame to be adored so that the water-worship in the East has its striking\ncounterpart in the history of Western thought.\n\nProfessor Robertson Smith identifies well-worship with the agricultural\nlife of aborigines who had not yet developed the idea of a heavenly\nGod. This is his description of the worship prevailing in Arabia: \u201cThe\nfountain is treated as a living thing, those properties of its waters\nwhich we call natural are regarded as manifestations of a divine life,\nand the source itself is honoured as a divine being, I had almost said a\ndivine animal.\u201d[10] \u201cThis pregnant summary of well-worship in Arabia,\u201d\nsays Sir Laurence Gomme in his _Ethnology of Folklore_, \u201cmay, without the\nalteration of a single word, be adopted as the summary of well-worship in\nBritain and its isles.\u201d One might even say that well-worship is probably\nmore widespread in the West than in the East and that some of the rituals\nthere observed are more primitive than those which distinguish it in the\nEast.\n\n\n\n\nPART II.\n\nWATER-WORSHIP IN EAST AND WEST.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nTHE MOST WIDE-SPREAD PHASE OF ANIMISM.\n\n\nWe have seen that water-worship was a cult of hoary antiquity. The belief\nthat every locality has its presiding genius gave rise to the deification\nof fountains and rivers just as it led to the deification of hills and\ntrees and other phases of animism. The emphasis of animism lies in\nits localisation, in the local spirits which, to quote Tylor\u2019s words,\nbelong to mountain and rock and valley, to well and stream and lake, in\nbrief, to those natural objects which in early ages aroused the savage\nmind to mythological ideas.[11] Some localities may not have in their\nmidst such weird places as mountains and rivers, groves and forests, but\nscarcely any district is devoid of a well or a pool of water. Of all\nnature-worship, therefore, well-worship is the most widespread. Just the\nsame scenes as one witnesses to-day at wells and tanks in India were\nbeheld for ages in other parts of the world. Just the same stories as\none hears to-day of the mysterious ways and powers of water-spirits were\neverywhere heard before. We have already seen that it was a general cult\nwith the ancient Iranians and with the help of Professor Robertson Smith\nand Professor Curtiss we have also noticed how in Arabia the fountain\nwas treated as a living thing and the source itself honoured as a divine\nbeing.\n\nMax M\u00fcller, however, puts a different construction on the deification of\nnatural objects. He points out that it is in India more than anywhere\nelse that animism has been made to disclose its secret cause, namely,\nthe necessity of deriving all appellative nouns from roots necessarily\nexpressive, as Noire has shown, of action, so that, whether we like it\nor not, the sun whether called Svar or Vishnu, bull, swan or any other\nname, becomes _ipso nomine_ an agent, the shiner or the wanderer, the\nstrong man, the swift bird. By the same process the wind is the blower,\nthe night the calmer, the moon, Soma, the rainer. What is classed as\nanimism in ancient Aryan mythology, he observes, is often no more than a\npoetical conception of nature which enables the poets to address the sun\nand moon, and rivers and trees as if they could hear and understand his\nwords. \u201cSometimes however,\u201d he continues, \u201cwhat is called animism is a\nsuperstition which after having recognised agents in sun and moon, rivers\nand trees, postulates on the strength of analogy the existence of agents\nor spirits dwelling in other parts of nature also, haunting our houses,\nbringing misfortunes upon us, though sometimes conferring blessings\nalso.\u201d It lies beyond the scope of this work to enter into any discussion\nof this theory, but we shall see as we proceed that the theory of poetic\npersonification does not harmonize with the myriad details of folklore of\nwells and springs.\n\nOne might be inclined to attribute the worship of water to the great\neconomic value which water possesses in the hot and dry regions of the\neast where wells and springs are veritable assets of the people, the\nmost precious gifts of the gods. But it was not in arid lands only that\nwells received divine honour. There is ample evidence to show that people\ninhabiting lands rich in springs and fountains also held them sacred\nand worshipped the divine beings under whose protection the streams\nflowed bubbling across their fields. It would seem, therefore, that the\nspiritual element has been the uppermost in the worship of water. It was\nin view of the religious awe in which the Greeks held rivers that they\nraised their prayers to the springs, as may be gathered from the prayers\noffered by Odysseus to the river after his vicissitudes in the deep and\nfrom the description given by Homer in the _Iliad_ of the sacrifice\noffered at flowing springs.\n\nAccording to the Old Testament water was an important factor during the\nfirst three days of Creation. On the first day \u201cthe spirit of God moved\nupon the face of the waters\u201d; on the second day the nether waters were\ndivided from the upper, and the latter were transformed into the \u201crakia\u201d\nor \u201cfirmament\u201d; and on the third day the nether waters were assigned to\ntheir allotted place, which received the name of \u201csea.\u201d The Gnostics\nregarded water as the original element and through their influence and\nthe influence of the Greeks similar beliefs gained currency among the\nJews, so that Judah ben Pazi transmitted the following saying in the\nname of R. Ismael: \u201cIn the beginning the world consisted of water within\nwater; the water was then changed into ice and again transformed by God\ninto earth. The earth itself, however, rests upon the waters, and the\nwaters on the mountains\u201d (_i.e._ the clouds).[12]\n\nNature withheld stone and wood from the Babylonian, but bestowed upon him\nby way of compensation another invaluable gift\u2014the sea and the rivers.\nThe Babylonian fully realized its value as an incentive to civilization.\nIn his work on the _Evolution of the Aryan_ Rudolph von Ibering points\nout that in his conception of the God Nun the Babylonian personified the\nidea that water was the source of all life, that historically the earth\ncame forth from the water as well as that water was the source of all\nblessing, the quickening element of creation. Indeed, in Mesopotamia\nmore than anywhere else one could vividly realize the fact that the\ninhabited soil had once formed the bottom of the sea and had become dry\nland through the retreat of the waters. In Egypt Shu, the air, rises\nfrom water which existed before the gods and goddesses some of whom like\nVishnu, Vira-Kocha and Aphrodite, have actually sprung from waters. In\nthe Quran Lord Almighty says: \u201cWe clave the heavens and earth asunder,\nand by means of water, we gave life to everything.\u201d This is also one\nof the Ebionite doctrines. The Akkad triad of gods was formed of Ea,\nthe ocean-god, who was also known as \u201cthe lord of the earth\u201d with Na,\nthe Sky, and Mul-ge, the lord of the underworld. They had no local\nwater-deities, but from the earliest times we come across two stages of\ndevelopment of one central idea\u2014the conception of the natural element as\nan animated being itself and the separation of its animating fetish-soul\nas a distinct spiritual deity. In the _Land of the Hittites_ Garstang\nsays that the Hittites seem to have absorbed into their pantheon a number\nof acceptable nature-cults, like the worship of mountains and streams\nand of the mother-goddess of earth, already practised by an earlier\npopulation whom they overlaid. In the history of Polybius is recorded an\noath made by Hannibal to Philip of Macedon containing two triads sacred\nto the Ph\u0153nicians: \u201cSun, Moon and Earth\u201d; \u201cRivers, Meadows and Waters.\u201d\n\nIn the Puranas the Vedic God Varuna is the \u201clord of the waters.\u201d He\nrides on the Makara, half crocodile, half fish, rules the soft west\nwinds and controls the salt seas and the \u201cseminal principle.\u201d[13] The\nnoose of Varuna is called the N\u00e2gap\u00e2sa, or snake-noose, from which the\nwicked cannot escape. Every twinkle of man\u2019s eyes and his inward thoughts\nare known to Varuna. \u201cHe sees as if he were always near: none can flee\nfrom his presence, nor be rid of Varuna. If we flee beyond the sky, he\nis there; he knows our uprising and lying down.\u201d Originally Mithra and\nVaruna were merely the names for day and night and it is interesting\nto note how the conception of the night served to convey the idea of\nthe ocean. \u201cThe night,\u201d says Kunte,[14] \u201cpresents the phenomenon of an\nexpanse which resembles that of the ocean in colour, in extent, in depth,\nand in undulating motion. Hence the idea of the one naturally expressed\nthe idea of the other. The god of night became the god of waters.\u201d The\nsame author thus sums up the different stages of the development of the\nidea of Varuna:\n\n1. Varuna, darkness or night and one possessed of meshes.\n\n2. Varuna, ocean or firmament.\n\n3. Varuna, lord of waters.\n\n4. One who aided sailors, a beneficent god.\n\nTurning to the classic world, we find that the early Greeks, like the\nBabylonians, regarded the ocean as a broad river surrounding the earth,\nthe abode whence spirits came, and to which they returned, and so a\n\u201criver of life and death.\u201d They called Okeanos, the ocean, the son of\nheaven and earth, and his wife was T\u0113this, or T\u0113thus; together they were\nthe parents of all waters.\n\n\u201cTo the great Olympian assembly in the halls of cloud-compelling Zeus\ncame the Rivers, all save Ocean, and thither came the nymphs who dwell in\nlovely groves and at the springs of streams, and in the grassy meads; and\nthey sate upon the polished seats. Even against Hephaistos, the Fire-god,\na River-god dared to stand opposed, deep-eddying Xanthos, called of men\nSkamandros. He rushed down to overwhelm Achilles and bury him in sand and\nslime, and though Hephaistos prevailed against him with his flames, and\nforced him, with the fish skurrying hither and thither in his boiling\nwaves and the willows scorched upon his banks, to rush on no more but\nstand, yet at the word of white-armed Here, that it was not fit for\nmortals\u2019 sake to handle so roughly an immortal god, Hephaistos quenched\nhis furious fire, and the returning flood sped again along his channel.\u201d\n\nNeptune was the Latin Sea-god, \u201cthe lord of dwelling waves.\u201d When\nKleomenes marched down to Thyrea, having slaughtered a bull to the sea,\nhe embarked his army in ships for the Tirynthian land and Nauplia.\nCicero makes Cotta remark to Balbus that \u201cour generals, embarking on\nthe sea, have been accustomed to immolate a victim to the waves,\u201d and\nhe goes on to argue that if the Earth herself is a goddess she is no\nother than Tellus and if the earth, the sea too referred to by Balbus as\nNeptune. Here, says Tylor[15], is direct nature-worship in its extremest\nsense of fetish-worship. But in the anthropomorphic stage appear that\ndim pre-Olympian figure of N\u0113reus, the Old Man of the Sea, father\nof the Nereids in their ocean-caves, and the Homeric Poseidon, the\nEarth-shaker, \u201cwho stables his coursers in his cave in the \u00c6gean deeps,\nwho harnesses the gold-maned steeds to his chariot and drives through the\ndividing waves, while the subject sea-beasts come up at the passing of\ntheir lord, a king so little bound to the element he governs, that he can\ncome from the brine to sit in the midst of the gods in the assembly on\nOlympos, and ask the will of Zeus.\u201d\n\nThe third greatest god of the Scandinavians was Ni\u00f6rd, born in Vanaheim\n(the water home), and living among sailors in Noatun (ship town) ruling\nthe winds, and sea, and quenching the fires of day in his waves. To\nthe Vanir, or sea folk, he was the \u201crich and beneficent one,\u201d and his\nchildren were Frey and Freya. Skadi, \u201cthe scathing one\u201d, daughter of\nThiassi the giant god of land, took him as her husband, but land and\nwater did not long agree. His consort is also Nerthus, the earth-goddess\nof Rugen, called by the Germans, the iron lady.\n\nJapan deifies separately on land and at sea the lords of the waters.\nMidsuno Kami, the water-god, is worshipped during the rainy season and\nJebisu, the sea-god, is younger brother of the Sun to whom the Japanese\noffer cloth, rice and bottles of rum, just as the Greek sacrificed a bull\nto Poseidon and the Romans to Neptune, before a voyage. The Peruvian\nsea-god Virakocha, \u201cfoam of the lake\u201d or \u201cof the waters,\u201d was often\nidentified with the Creator. Arising from the waters he made the sun and\nthe planets, gave life to stones and created all things.\n\n\u201cIt appears from Bosman\u2019s account, about 1700,\u201d says Tylor, \u201cthat in the\nreligion of Whydah, the sea ranked only as younger brother in the three\ndivine orders, below the serpents and trees. But at present, as appears\nfrom Captain Burton\u2019s evidence, the religion of Whydah extends through\nDahowe, and the Divine Sea has risen in rank. The youngest brother of the\ntriad is Hu, the ocean or sea. Formerly, it was subject to chastisement,\nlike the Hellespont, if idle or useless. The Huno, or ocean priest, is\nnow considered the highest of all, a fetish king, at Whydah, where he\nhas 500 wives. At stated times he repairs to the beach, begs \u2018Agbwe\u2019,\nthe ocean-god, not to be boisterous, and throws in rice and corn, oil\nand beans, cloth, cowries and other valuables. At times the King sends\nas an ocean sacrifice from Agbowe a man carried in a hammock, with the\ndress, the stool, and the umbrella of a caboceer; a canoe takes him out\nto sea, where he is thrown to the sharks. While in these descriptions the\nindividual divine personality of the sea is so well marked, an account of\nthe closely related slave coast religion states that a great god dwells\nin the sea, and it is to him, not to the sea itself, that offerings are\ncast in. In South America the idea of the divine sea is clearly marked in\nthe Peruvian worship of Mamacocha, Mother Sea, giver of food to men.\u201d[16]\n\nThe Egyptians gratefully recognize how much they owe to the Nile and\nin their hymns they thank the Nile-god. Statues of the god are painted\ngreen and red, representing the colour of the river in June when it is\na bright green before the inundation and the ruddy hue when its wells\nare charged with the red mud brought down from the Abyssinian mountains.\nWe have already noticed that the spring was and is still adored as Lord\nAlmighty\u2019s daughter by the Zoroastrians. The Zoroastrian scriptures\nrecord how she was worshipped by the Heavenly Father Himself when He\nwanted her assistance in inducing _Zarathushtra_ to become His prophet.\nEven to this day a festival is held in her honour by the Parsis in Bombay\non the tenth day of the eighth month of the Parsi year. This day as well\nas the month bear the name Aban. The Parsis flock in numbers on this\nauspicious day to the sea-beach to offer prayers.\n\nNot unlike the Iranians the Greeks also adored their marine goddess\nAphrodite, \u201cborn in the foam of the sea.\u201d Greek folklore tells us how\nthis goddess rose from the sea opposite the island of Cythera. She was\nalso the goddess of love and was in earlier times regarded as the\ngoddess of domestic life and of the relations between families, being\nin some places associated with Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth,\nor regarded, like Artemis, as a guardian of children and young maidens.\nOdysseus invoked the river of Scheria, Skamandros had his priest and\nSpercheios his grove, and sacrifice was given to the river-god Acheloos,\neldest of the three thousand river-children, and old Okeanos.\n\nGreek saints were believed to bestow wells of water endowed with\nmiraculous properties, and frequently on their feast days an extra supply\nmade the wells overflow. The monastery of Plemmyri, in the south-east\nof Rhodes, possesses a well of this nature. The priest walks round it,\noffering up certain prayers and sometimes the water rises in answer to\nhis invocation and flows over into the Court. Another such interesting\nwell exists in the Church of the Virgin at Balukli, outside the walls of\nConstantinople.[17]\n\nSimilarly, the Romans had their water-nymph Egeria. Women with child used\nto offer sacrifices to her, because she was believed to be able, like\n_Ardevi Sur Anahita_ and Diana, to grant them an easy delivery. Every day\nRoman Vestals fetched water from her spring to wash the temple of Vesta,\ncarrying it in earthenware pitchers on their heads. In his Golden Bough\nSir James Frazer observes that the remains of baths which were discovered\nnear that site together with many terra cotta models of various parts\nof the human body suggest that the waters of Egeria were used to heal\nthe sick who may have signified their hopes or testified their gratitude\nby dedicating likenesses of the diseased members to the goddess, in\naccordance with a custom which is still observed in many parts of Europe.\nExamples of the survival of this custom in modern times are given by\nBlunt in his _Vestiges of Ancient Manners and Customs in Modern Italy and\nSicily_. It is also widespread among the Catholic population in Southern\nGermany and the Christian missionaries from those parts have brought the\ncustom to India also. Almost every Sunday the Goans and Native Christians\nof Bombay, for instance, will be seen dedicating likenesses of diseased\nlimbs made of wax to Virgin Mary at Mount Mary\u2019s chapel at Bandra in\ngratitude for the cures effected through her grace. The custom has spread\namongst other communities and I have heard of several cases in which\nParsi ladies have taken such offerings to the Chapel.\n\nThis parallelism of beliefs and catholicity of cures remind one of the\nfaith which not only the Greeks and the Roman Catholics, but the Turks\nand the Jews had in the miracles wrought by the Greek Saints. The best\nknown instance of this, given by Miss Hamilton in her illuminating work\non _Greek Saints and their Festivals_, is the large marble fountain\nstanding in the court of the Panagia\u2019s Church at Tenos. It was the\ngift of a grateful Turk cured, according to his own conviction, by the\nPanagia of the Christians. To a certain extent a feeling was prevalent\nagainst permitting unbelievers to participate in these boons, but it\nwas futile in effect and the cures of infidels continued. Within the\nSmyrna Cathedral there is a holy well the water of which is specially\nrenowned for the cure of ophthalmia. Turks, along with Greeks, shared in\nits benefits to an extent which excited the jealousy of the officials\nand they resolved to give ordinary water in response to the demands\nof infidels. This stratagem was, however, ineffectual for the eyes of\nthe Turks were cured nevertheless with the unsanctified medium just as\nthoroughly as with the holy water. This might have shaken the faith of\nthe believers in the holy well, but fortunately for them no such rude\nawakening appears to have marred their confidence in the miraculous\npowers of the well or of the saints.\n\nNumerous proofs of water-worship in Great Britain exist to-day. English\nfolklore is full of these and we shall notice them presently. There is\nalso arch\u00e6ological evidence establishing the prevalence of the cult.\nOn a pavement at Sydney Park, Gloucestershire, on the western bank of\nthe Severn, has been carved the figure of one of the English river\ndivinities. The principal figure is a youthful deity crowned with rays\nlike Phoebus and standing in a chariot drawn, as in the case of _Banu\nArdevi Sur Anahita_ of the Iranians, by four horses. Three inscriptions\nare preserved: (1) Devo Nodenti; (2) D. M. Nodonti and (3) Deo Nudente\nM. The form Nodens has been identified by Professor Rhys with the Welsh\nLludd and with the Irish Nuada. This monumental relic by no means\npresents the British embodiment of the water-god, the work being Roman\nit evidently bears the stamp of the Roman interpretation of the British\nbelief in the local god and has been modelled on the Roman standard\nof the water-god Neptune. The whole find has been fully described and\nillustrated in a special volume by the Rev. W. H. Bathurst and C. W. King.\n\nIn Tylor\u2019s _Primitive Culture_ we find the following American examples of\nanimistic ideas concerning water. \u201cWho makes this river flow?\u201d asks the\nAlgonquin hunter in a medicine song, and his answer is, \u201cThe spirit, he\nmakes this river flow.\u201d In any great river, or lake, or cascade, there\ndwell such spirits, looked upon as mighty manitus. Thus Carver mentions\nthe habit of the Red Indians, when they reached the shores of Lake\nSuperior or the banks of the Mississippi, or any great body of water,\nto present to the spirit who resides there some kind of offering; this\nhe saw done by a Winnebago chief who went with him to the Falls of St.\nAnthony. Franklin saw a similar sacrifice made by an Indian, whose wife\nhad been afflicted with sickness by the water-spirits and who accordingly\nto appease them tied up in a small bundle a knife and a piece of tobacco\nand some other trifling articles, and committed them to the rapids. On\nthe river-bank the Peruvians would scoop up a handful of water and drink\nit, praying the river deity to let them cross or to give them some fish,\nand they threw maize into the stream as a propitiating offering. Even\nto this day the Indians of the Cordilleras perform the ceremonial sip\nbefore they will pass a river on foot or horseback, just as the Hindus\nand Parsis throw cocoanuts and flowers and sugar.\n\nTylor also gives the following African rites of water-worship. In the\nEast, among the Wanika, every spring has its spirit, to which oblations\nare made. In the West, in the Akra district, lakes, ponds and rivers\nreceived worship as local deities. In the South, among the Kafirs,\nstreams are venerated as personal beings, or the abodes of personal\ndeities, as when a man crossing a river will ask leave of its spirit, or\nhaving crossed will throw in a stone; or when the dwellers by a stream\nwill sacrifice a beast to it in time of drought, or, warned by illness\nin the tribe that their river is angry, will cast into it a few handfuls\nof millet or the entrails of a slaughtered ox. Not less strongly marked,\nsays Tylor, are such ideas among the Tartar races of the north. Thus\nthe Ostyaks venerate the river Ob, and when fish is scanty will hang a\nstone about a rein-deer\u2019s neck and cast it in for a sacrifice. Among the\nBur\u00e6ts, who are professing Buddhists, the old worship may still be seen\nat the picturesque little mountain lake of Ikeougoun, where they come to\nthe wooden temple on the shore to offer sacrifices of milk and butter and\nthe fat of the animals which they burn on the altars.\n\nIt is not necessary to overlay this chapter with countless other European\nand Indian examples. We shall examine these more fully in the subsequent\nchapters.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nCHRISTIAN TOLERANCE OF THE CULT OF WATER.\n\n\nThroughout the West the cult of water was flourishing along with the cult\nof trees and stones when Christianity found its way to Europe. The holy\nwells which were then plentiful have since changed their names, but a few\nhave still retained their old names. Thus there is or was a spring called\nWoden\u2019s well in Gloucestershire, which supplies water to the moat around\nWandswell Court, also a Thor\u2019s Well, or Thorskill, in Yorkshire. When the\nfaith and usages of the Celtics and the Anglo-Saxons came in contact with\nChristianity, together with the still older faiths and customs which the\nCelt and Teuton had continued or allowed to continue, the new religion\ndid not distinguish between the various shades of beliefs and usages.\nIt merely treated all alike as pagan. Kings, Popes and Church Councils\nissued edict after edict condemning non-Christian practices. Let us cite\nsome of these. The second Council of Arles, held about the year 452,\nissued the following canon:\n\n    \u201cIf in the territory of a bishop infidels light torches\n    or venerate trees, fountains, or stones, and he neglects\n    to abolish this usage, he must know that he is guilty of\n    sacrilege.\u201d\n\nKing Canute in England and Charlemagne in Europe also conducted vigorous\ncampaigns against these relics of paganism. Here is an extract from\nCharlemagne\u2019s edict:\n\n    \u201cWith respect to trees, stones, and fountains, where certain\n    foolish people light torches or practise other superstitions,\n    we earnestly ordain that the most evil custom detestable to\n    God, wherever it be found, should be removed and destroyed.\u201d\n\nIt was too much, however, to hope for the total eradication of those\nfaiths and customs of age-long existence. Pope Gregory was not slow to\nrealize this, as will be seen from the following extract from his famous\nletter to the Abbot Mellitus in the year 601:\u2014\n\n    \u201cWhen, therefore, Almighty God shall bring you to the most\n    reverend Bishop Augustine our Brother, tell him what I have,\n    upon mature deliberation on the affair of the English,\n    determined upon, namely that the temples of the idols (_fana\n    idolorum_) in that nation (_gente_) ought not to be destroyed;\n    but let the idols that are in them be destroyed; let holy water\n    be made and sprinkled upon the said temples, let altars be\n    erected and relics placed. For if these temples be well built,\n    it is requisite that they may be converted from the worship of\n    devils (_d\u00e6monum_) to the worship of the true God; that the\n    nation seeing that their temples are not destroyed may remove\n    error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true God\n    may the more familiarly resort to the places to which they have\n    been accustomed. And because they have been used to slaughter\n    many oxen in the sacrifices to devils some solemnity must be\n    exchanged for them on this account, so that on the day of\n    the dedication, or the nativities of the holy martyrs whose\n    relics are there deposited, they may build themselves huts\n    of the boughs of trees about those churches which have been\n    turned to that use from temples and celebrate the solemnity\n    with religious feasting and no more offer beasts to the devil\n    (_diabolo_), but kill cattle to the praise of God in their\n    eating, and return thanks to the giver of all things for their\n    sustenance.\u201d\n\nThus did the early Christian missionaries come to regard the old phase\nof water-worship tenderly. Adopting what they could not abolish, they\nblessed the waters of holy wells and used them for baptism of converts\nand erected chapels or oratories near by or placed an image of the\nVirgin, or some saint, near sacred trees and rivers or over holy wells\nand fountains. Thus did the new faith which aimed in principle at the\npurity of Christian doctrine permit in practice a continuance of pagan\nworship under Christian auspices. Curious was the result. Under the\ntransformation of beliefs thus unconsciously wrought the simple-hearted\nChristians beheld in brilliant images of the virgin and the saints fresh\ndwelling-places for the presiding deities of the waters whom they and\ntheir forefathers had venerated in the past. The belief in the miraculous\npower of water became linked with the name of _Madonna_ or some saintly\nmessenger of God and so enduring was this combination that it gave a new\nlease of life to the old beliefs.\n\nOne by one the old ideas and customs which were firmly rooted in the\nmultitude came to be absorbed into Christianity. A dual system of belief\nthus sprang up and this is very strikingly reflected in the supplication\nof an old Scottish peasant when he went to worship at a sacred well:\n\n    \u201cO Lord, Thou knowest that well would it be for me this day an\n    I had stoopit my knees and my heart before Thee in spirit and\n    in truth as often as I have stoopit them after this well. But\n    we maun keep the customs of our fathers.\u201d[18]\n\nWhat is true of well-worship is true of other phases of nature-worship.\nA vivid picture of the result of the Christian tolerance of paganism\nhas been drawn by Grimm in the preface to the second edition of his\nTeutonic Mythology. For our present purpose it will suffice to quote\nfrom it only two or three sentences which have a direct bearing on the\nquestion of water-worship: \u201cSacred wells and fountains,\u201d says he, \u201cwere\nrechristened after saints, to whom their sanctity was transferred. Law\nusages, particularly the ordeals and oath-takings, but also the beating\nof bounds, consecrations, image processions, spells and formula, while\nretaining their heathen character, were simply clothed in Christian\nforms. In some customs there was little to change: the heathen practice\nof sprinkling a new-born babe with water closely resembled Christian\nbaptism.\u201d\n\nThis reference to adapted pagan rites in connection with the baptismal\nceremony recalls the words in which Mr. Edward Clodd in _Tom Tit Tot_\ntraces the early beginnings of the order of the Christian clergy to a\nprehistoric past. \u201cThe priest who christens the child in the name of the\nFather, Son and Holy Ghost,\u201d says he, \u201cis the lineal descendant, the\ntrue apostolic successor of the medicine-man. He may deny the spiritual\nfather who begot him, and vaunt his descent from St. Peter. But the first\nBishop of Rome, granting that title to the apostle, was himself a parvenu\ncompared to the barbaric priest who uttered his incantations on the hill\nnow crowned by the Vatican.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe think with sympathy,\u201d continues Mr. Clodd, \u201cof that \u2018divine honour\u2019\nwhich Gildas tells us our forefathers paid to wells and streams; of the\nfood-bringing rivers which, in the old Celtic faith, were \u2018mothers\u2019; of\nthe eddy in which the water-demon lurked; of the lakes ruled by lovely\nqueens; of the nymphs who were the presiding genii of wells.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nHOLY WELLS AND TANKS.\n\n\nWith the learned author of _Tom Tit Tot_ we also think with sympathy of\nthe worship of the saint Khwaja Khizr, who is believed by the Syrians\nto have caused water to flow in the Sabbati fountain in northern Syria\nand who is ranked among the prophets by the Mahomedans and recognised by\nthe Hindus as a patron saint of boatmen, his Moslem name being Hinduised\ninto R\u00e2j\u00e2 Kidar or Kawaj or Pir Badra. He is, however, most widely\nknown as the patron saint of the water of immortality. When the great\nSikandar, Alexander of Macedon, went in quest of the blessed waters,\nKhizr accompanied him, as a guide, to Zulmat, the region of darkness,\nwhere the spring of the water of immortality was believed to exist. When\nthey reached Zulmat, Khizr said that only 12 persons should enter that\nregion on 12 mares and that each mare\u2019s colt should be tied outside so\nthat should any one lose his way, the mare on which he rode might lead\nhim back to the starting point, following the direction from which she\nwould hear the neighing of her colt. This course was followed. According\nto one account, the party succeeded in reaching the coveted spring. Khizr\ndrank from it first and then asked Sikandar to drink as much as he liked.\nThe conqueror of the East, however, stood still. He saw before him some\nvery aged birds in a pitiable condition, longing for death and muttering\n_maut, maut, maut_, death, death, death! Death, however, would not come\nto them as they had tasted the water of immortality. This was enough to\nunnerve Alexander and he turned back without tasting the water. According\nto another tradition, Khizr slipped away in the region of darkness, went\nalone to the spring and drank from it. Alexander and his comrades lost\ntheir way and were only able to emerge from the darkness with the help of\ntheir mares who instinctively followed the direction whence they heard\nthe neighing of their colts.\n\nIn India the fish is believed to be the vehicle of Khwaja Khizr. Its\nimage is therefore painted over the doors of Hindus and Mahomedans\nin Northern India and it became the family crest of one of the royal\nfamilies of Oudh. When a Mahomedan lad is shaved for the first time,\na prayer is offered to the saint and a little boat is launched in his\nhonour in a tank or river. The Hindus as well as the Mahomedans in Upper\nIndia invoke his help when their boats go adrift and they worship him\nby burning lamps and by setting afloat on a village pond a little raft\nof grass with a lighted lamp placed upon it. A Mahomedan friend who has\noften taken part in this ceremony which is known as _Khwaja Saheb ka\nDalya_, has favoured me with the following description of it: \u201cOn the\nevening of the ceremony people congregate by the side of the river and\nbring with them a quantity of _dalya_, a confection of wheat, and a tiny\nboat prepared for the occasion. They then light a _diva_ or ghee lamp,\nand place it by the side of the _dalya_, which is then consecrated in\nthe name of Khwaja Khizr by reading _Fatiha_ over it. A portion of the\nconfection is then placed in the boat which is launched in the river\nwith the small lamp in it. The remaining portion is distributed amongst\nfriends and relations and the poor.\u201d\n\nAs a rule the Mahomedans do not worship water. They, however, hold the\nwell Zumzum in Mecca in great veneration. It is believed that this\nsingle well supplies water to the whole city and that its water comes\nup bubbling on occasions of religious fervour. The water of the well is\nalso credited with miraculous properties and on their return from the\npilgrimage to the holy city almost all the Hajis (pilgrims) bring home\nthe water of Zumzum in small tins and distribute it amongst friends who\nuse it as a cure for several diseases and also sprinkle it on the sheet\ncovering the dead.\n\nNo other holy well attracts the followers of Islam, but for the Hindus\nthe number of such places of pilgrimage is legion. Particularly do they\nflock in numbers to the sacred rivers which are regarded as the dwelling\nplaces of some of the most benevolent deities. In Northern India the\nGanges and the Jumna are known as \u201cGanga M\u00e2i\u201d, or Mother Ganges, and\n\u201cJumnaji\u201d or Lady Jumna. Foremost in the rank of the holy rivers is\nthe Ganges, which, like other rivers, is specially sacred at certain\nauspicious conjunctions of the planets when crowds of people are seen\nbathing on her banks. This sanctity is shared by several towns along the\nshores of the river such as Hardwar, Bithur, Allahabad, Benares and Ganga\nSagar. No less sacred is the Godavari, believed to be the site of the\nhermitage of Gautama. When the planet _Brihaspati_ (Jupiter) enters the\n_Sinha Rashi_ (the constellation of Leo), a phenomenon which takes place\nonce in twelve years, the holy Ganges goes to the Godavari and remains\nthere for one year and during that year all the gods bathe in this river.\nHence the pilgrimage of thousands of Hindus to Nasik to offer prayers\nto the Godavari. A pilgrimage similar to this is common in Russia.\nThere, an annual ceremony of blessing the waters of the Neva is usually\nperformed in the presence of the Czar.[19] Multitudes flock to the site\nand struggle for some of the newly blessed water with which they cross\nthemselves and sprinkle their clothes.\n\nIn his \u201cPopular Religion and Folklore of Northern India\u201d Crooke observes\nthat many of the holy wells in Northern India are connected with the\nwanderings of Rama and Sita after their exile from Ayodhya. Sita\u2019s\nkitchen (_Sita ki rasoi_) is shown in various places, as at Kanauj and\nDeoriya in the Allahabad District. Her well is on the Bindhachal hill\nin Mirzapur, and is a famous resort of pilgrims. There is another near\nMonghyr and a third in the Sultanpur District in Oudh. The Monghyr\nwell has been invested with a special legend. Sita was suspected of\nfaithlessness during her captivity in the kingdom of Ravana. She threw\nherself into a pit filled with fire, where the hot spring now flows,\nand came out purified. When Dr. Buchanan visited the place, he heard a\nnew story in connection with it. Shortly before, it was said, the water\nbecame so cool as to allow bathing in it. The Governor prohibited the\npractice as it made the water so dirty that Europeans could not drink it.\n\u201cBut on the very day when the bricklayers began to build a wall in order\nto exclude the bathers, the water became so hot that no one could dare\nto touch it, so that the precaution being unnecessary, the work of the\ninfidels was abandoned.\u201d[20]\n\nA bath in the waters of wells is believed to have the same efficacy for\nexpiating sin as a bath in the holy rivers. This belief rests on the\ntheory that springs and rivers flow under the agency of an indwelling\nspirit which is generally benignant and that bathing brings the sinner\ninto communion with the spirit and purifies him in the moral more than in\nthe physical sense. It is believed that even the dead are benefited by\nsuch ceremonies.\n\nA very typical case of the efficacy of such religious baths is that of\nKing Trisanku, who had committed three deadly sins. According to one\nstory he tried to win his way to heaven by a great sacrifice which his\npriest, Vashishtha, declined to perform. According to another account he\nran away with the wife of a citizen, and killed in a time of famine the\nwondrous cow of Vashishtha. Another story accused him of having married\nhis step-mother. After he had been sufficiently chastised, the saint\nViswamitra took pity on him and having collected water from all the\nsacred places in the world, washed him clean of all offences.\n\nThe Brahmins also wash themselves of sins with the washing of their\nsacred thread every year, with a ceremony of sprinkling of water and\ncow\u2019s urine. This ceremony is known as Shr\u00e1vani amongst the Marathas and\nM\u0101rjan Vidhi amongst the Gujeratis.\n\nIt would be impossible to enumerate the numerous sacred wells of India. A\nfew instances may, however, be cited from the _Folklore Notes of Gujarat_.\n\nSix miles to the east of Dwarka there is a _kund_ called Pind tarak,\nwhere many persons go to perform the _Shr\u00e2ddha_ and the _N\u00e2r\u00e2yan-bali_\nceremonies. They first bathe in the _kund_; then, with its water, they\nprepare pindas, and place them in a metal dish; red lac is applied to the\npindas, and a piece of cotton thread wound round them; the metal dish\nbeing then dipped in the _kund_, when the _pindas_, instead of sinking,\nare said to remain floating on the water. The process is believed to\nearn a good status for the spirits of departed ancestors in heaven. It\nis further said that physical ailments brought on by the _avagati_,\ndegradation or fallen condition, of ancestors in the other world, are\nremedied by the performance of _Shr\u00e2ddha_ on this _kund_.\n\nThe Damodar _kund_ is situated near Junagadh. It is said that if the\nbones of a deceased person remaining unburnt after cremation are dipped\nin this _kund_, his soul obtains _moksha_ or final emancipation.\n\nThere is a _vav_ or reservoir on Mount Girnar, known as Rasakupika-vav.\nIt is believed that the body of a person bathing in it becomes as hard\nas marble, and that if a piece of stone or iron is dipped in the _vav_,\nit is instantly transformed into gold. But the _vav_ is only visible to\nsaints and sages who are gifted with a supernatural vision.\n\nKashipuri (Benares) contains a _vav_ called Gnyan-vav, in which there is\nan image of Vishweshwar (the Lord of the Universe, _i.e._, Shiva). A bath\nin the water from this _vav_ is believed to confer upon a person the gift\nof divine knowledge.\n\n[Illustration: Ganga M\u00e2i.]\n\n[Illustration: Marjan Vidhi: Washing away of sins with the changing of\nthe Sacred Thread.]\n\nIn the village of Chunval, a few miles to the north of Viramgam, there\nis a _kund_ known as Loteshwar, near which stands a pipal tree. Persons\npossessed by ghosts or devils are freed from possession by pouring water\nat the foot of the tree and taking turns round it, remaining silent the\nwhile.\n\nThere is a _kund_ called Zel\u0101ka near Zinzuvad\u00e1 with a temple of Naleshwar\nM\u0101hadev near it. The _kund_ is said to have been built at the time of\nKing Nala. It is believed locally that every year, on the 15th day of\nthe bright half of Bh\u0101drapad, the holy Ganges visits the _kund_ by an\nunderground route. A great fair is held there on that day, when people\nbathe in the _kund_ and give alms to the poor. There is also another\n_kund_ close by, known as Bholava, where the river Saraswati is believed\nto have halted and manifested herself on her way to the sea.\n\nIn Bhadakon near Chuda there is a _kund_ called Garigavo. The place is\ncelebrated as the spot of the hermitage of the sage Bhrigu and a fair is\nheld there annually on the last day of _Bh\u0101drapad_.\n\nPersons anxious to attain heaven bathe in the Mrigi _kund_ on Mount\nGirnar; and a bath in the Revati _kund_, which is in the same place,\nconfers male issue on the bather. There is also a _kund_ of the shape of\nan elephant\u2019s footprint _Pagahein_ on Mount Girnar. It never empties and\nis held most sacred by pilgrims. People bathe in the Gomati _kund_ near\nDwarka and take a little of the earth from its bed for the purification\nof their souls. In the village of Babera, Babhruv\u0101han the son of Arjun is\nsaid to have constructed several _kunds_, all of which are believed to be\nholy.\n\nA man is said to be released from re-birth if he takes a bath in the\n_kund_ named Katkale-tirtha near Nasik.\n\nA pond near Khapoli in the Kolaba district is held very sacred. The\nfollowing story is related in connection with it. The villagers say\nthat the water nymphs in the pond used to provide pots for marriage\nfestivities if a written application was made to them a day previous to\nthe wedding. The pots were, however, required to be returned within a\nlimited time. Once a man failed to comply with this condition and the\nnymphs have ceased to lend pots.\n\nThe nymphs of a pond at Varsai in the Kolaba district were also believed\nto lend pots on festive occasions. Persons held unclean, _e.g._, women in\ntheir menstrual period, are not allowed to touch it. Similarly, a pool at\nPushkar in Northern India turns red if the shadow of a woman during the\nperiod falls upon it.\n\nThere are seven sacred ponds at Nirmal in the Thana district, forming a\nlarge lake. These ponds are said to have been formed from the blood of\nthe demon Vimalsur.\n\nThere are sacred pools of hot water in the Vaitarna river in the Thana\ndistrict, in which people bathe on the 13th day of the dark half of\n_chaitra_.\n\nAt Shahapur there is a holy spring of hot water under a _pipal_ tree,\ncalled Ganga.\n\nIt is held holy to bathe in the _kunds_ that are situated in the rivers\nJansa and Banganga.\n\nThe Manikarnika well at Benares was produced by an ear-ring of Shiva\nfalling into it. If one drinks its water, it brings wisdom. The water of\nthe J\u00e2nav\u00e2pi well in Benares also possesses the same property.[21]\n\nAt Sarkuhiya in the Basti district there is a well where Buddha struck\nthe ground with his arrow and brought forth water just as Moses did from\nthe rock.\n\nCrooke says that he was shown a well in the Muzaffarnagar district into\nwhich a Faqir once spat, which for a long time after the visit of the\nholy man ran with excellent milk. The supply had, however, ceased before\nthe visit.\n\nA bath in the Man-sarovar near Bahucharaji is said to cause the wishes\nof the bather to be fulfilled. There is a local tradition that a Rajput\nwoman was turned into a male Rajput of the Solanki class by a bath in its\nwaters.\n\nThe cult of the bath for the purification of the soul is not confined to\nIndia and the Indian people. It was also widespread amongst the European\npeople and prevails even to-day on the Continent. We have already seen\nthat water-worship flourished in Europe before the advent of Christianity\nand that the new faith though antagonistic to it in principle was\nconsiderably tolerant in practice. It is not surprising, therefore, that\nthe old practice should, with a varnish of Christianity, survive up to\nthe present day. In an article contributed not long ago to the _Good\nWords_ magazine, Mr. Colin Bennett observed: \u201cOf all the remnants of\nancient pagan worship that which is dying hardest, or more probably has\nnot started to die at all, is the veneration of holy wells and belief in\ntheir miraculous properties.\u201d\n\nIn the year 1893 was published _The Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells\nof England_, including Rivers, Lakes, Fountains and Springs, by R. C.\nHope. Unfortunately, I have not been able to obtain a copy of this book,\nbut from the reviews of the work that appeared in the _Academy_ and in\nthe _Athen\u00e6um_ in August 1893, one gathers that although confessedly\nimperfect Mr. Hope\u2019s catalogue gives 129 names of saints in whose\nhonour English wells have been dedicated. The reviewers give additional\ninstances and point out that if inquiries were made, many more such wells\nwould be discovered. From the list it appears that with the exception\nof Virgin Mary, who has 29 wells, and all Saints to whom 33 wells are\ndedicated, wells under the patronage of St. Helen are the most numerous.\nSt. Helen was very popular in England, partly as being the mother of\nConstantine, the First Christian Emperor, and partly because two English\ncities, York and Colchester, claimed her as a native. The reviewer of\nMr. Hope\u2019s work in the _Athen\u00e6um_ suggested a third reason also for her\npopularity. She discovered what was reputed to be the holy cross, hence\nin many parts of England May 3rd, the festival of \u201cThe Invention of the\nCross\u201d, was called \u201cSt. Helen\u2019s Day in Spring\u201d, and became an important\nday in village affairs. Menor court rolls bear witness, says the writer,\nthat on that day commons were thrown open for the pasturage of cattle,\nand occupiers of land adjoining rivers well knew that it was the last day\nfor repairing their banks.\n\nAn interesting chapter on Holy Wells is also given in _Knowlson\u2019s Origins\nof Popular Superstitions_. On a little island near the centre of Lough\nFine there used to be a place for pilgrims anxious to get rid of their\nsins, the journey over the water being an important part of the business.\nIn Scotland (Tullie Beltane) there is a Druid temple of eight up-right\nstones. Some distance away is another temple, and near it a well still\nheld in great veneration, says a writer in the _Gentleman\u2019s Magazine\n(1811)_. \u201cOn Beltane morning superstitious people go to this well and\ndrink of it; then they make a procession round it nine times; after\nthis they in like manner go round the temple. So deep-rooted is this\nheathenish superstition in the minds of many who reckon themselves good\nProtestants, that they will not neglect these rites even when Beltane\nfalls on a Sabbath.\u201d\n\nThomas Quiller-Couch took a deep interest in the holy wells of Cornwall.\nHe visited many of them and the notes taken by him he intended to weave\ninto a volume illustrative of their history and the superstitions\nwhich had gathered around them. Unfortunately the intention could not\nbe carried out during his lifetime, but with the help of these notes\na volume was subsequently published on the _Ancient and Holy Wells of\nCornwall_ by M. and L. Quiller-Couch. This volume is not obtainable in\nBombay and in this case also I owe my information concerning the work\nto the review which appeared in the _Athen\u00e6um_ of 10th August 1895.\nDuring a pilgrimage of several months\u2019 duration the joint authors were\nable to discover more than ninety of such wells. From the account given\nby the authors it would seem that the Cornish wells are rarely haunted\nby spirits of any kind. They are holy, and cure all kinds of sickness,\nmadness included. They also tell us of the future, provided proper rites\nare observed, and we may secure good fortune by dropping a pin or a small\ncoin into the water.\n\nMajor-General Forlong cites St. Peter\u2019s well at Houston in Renfrewshire,\nSt. Ninian\u2019s well at Stirling with its vaulted cell, St. Catherine\u2019s\nwell at Liberton, St. Michael\u2019s well near the Linlithgow cathedral,\nand the well of Loch _Maree_ as some of the examples. Another sacred\nwell is St. Mungo\u2019s over which the Glasgow cathedral stands. In Ireland\n\u201cwe everywhere find peasants kneeling at sacred wells.\u201d Of the well of\nSt. Margaret under the black precipitous cliffs of Edinburgh Castle\nMajor-General Forlong says that it is exactly such a spot as he had seen\nin Central India, \u201cwhere pious persons precipitated themselves from the\nrock to please Siva or Kali.\u201d[22]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nHEALING WATERS.\n\n\nMany of these wells are renowned no less for their medicinal properties\nthan for their sanctity. Their waters are believed to be under the care\nof sanitary guardians and are held to be extremely efficacious in curing\nmany a distemper.\n\nThe use of water for therapeutic purposes is mentioned in the Old\nTestament, where it is stated that Naaman, who suffered from skin\ndisease, dipped himself seven times in the Jordan and was cured. The\nNew Testament records a case of congenital blindness cured by washing\nin the River Siloa. Balneotherapy and Hydrotherapy were not unknown in\nTalmudic times. The Talmud mentions a special season between Easter and\nWhitsun during which people used to go to the spas to take the waters\nor mudbaths. The cure lasted twenty-one days. In the Temple a special\ndoctor was appointed to attend the priests for intestinal trouble caused\nby their excessive eating of the flesh of sacrifices and the treatment\nprescribed for them was the drinking of the water of Siloa.[23]\n\nIn Bombay the Manmala tank at Matunga, the major portion of which has\nbeen recently filled up and on which the Sassoon Reformatory now stands,\nhas a reputation for curing measles. People from distant parts bring\ntheir children to this tank and the nymphs residing in it seldom fail\nto cure them of the malady. We are not aware of any other city well or\ntank gifted with such healing powers, but there are several in the Bombay\nPresidency. The Folklore notes of Gujarat mention a few. The water of\nthe Krukalas well in the island of Shankhodwar is believed to cure\nfever and diseases caused by morbid heat. A draught of the water of the\nGomukhi-Ganga, near Girnar, gives one absolute immunity from an attack\nof cholera. The water of a gozara well (_i.e._, a well which is polluted\nowing to a person drowned in it) cures children of bronchitis and cough.\nThere is a well near Ramdorana, of which the water is effective against\ncough, and the water of the Bahamania well near Vasawad is credited with\nthe same virtue. The water of the Mrigi Kund near Junagadh cures leprosy.\nThe Pipli well near Talawad is well-known for the stimulating effect of\nits water on the digestive organs. The residents of Bombay, however, need\nnot go to Talawad for this boon. There are in the city the Bhikha Behram\nwell on Churchgate Street and the High Court well on Mayo Road renowned\nfor similar properties of their water. In Northern India hydrophobia is\nbelieved to be cured if the patient looks down seven wells in succession,\nwhile in Gujarat when a person is bitten by a rabid dog, he goes to a\nwell inhabited by a _V\u00e2chharo_, the spirit who curses hydrophobia, with\ntwo earthen cups filled with milk with a pice in each, and empties the\ncontents into the water. In the island of Shiel there is a _vav_ called\n_Than-vav_ where mothers who cannot suckle their children for want of\nmilk wash their bodices which, when subsequently put on, are believed to\ncause the necessary secretion of milk.\n\nIt was recently brought to my notice that the guardian spirit of a well\nin Lonavla also possessed the gift of blessing mothers with milk. After\nthat well had been dug, a goat was offered by the owner of the well to\nthe spirit. This offering proved most unacceptable and the waters of the\nwell at once dried up. The owner implored pardon and vowed that no animal\nsacrifice would ever again be offered, and that milk and ghee would be\npresented instead. This had the desired effect and the guardian spirit\nof the water has since been most friendly. \u201cA few months ago,\u201d said my\ninformant, \u201ca young lady was desirous of getting milk for her new-born\nbabe. After fruitless attempts for a fortnight, she took an oath that\nshe would present to the water-saint _ghadas_ of milk and ghee and she\nwas forthwith blest with milk for the infant.\u201d\n\nIn the Konkan the water of a well drawn without touching the earth or\nwithout being placed upon the ground is given as medicine for indigestion.\n\nThere are ponds at Manora in the Goa State and Vetore in the Savantwadi\nState, the water of which is used for the cure of persons suffering from\nthe poison of snakes, mice, spiders and scorpions.\n\nIf a person is bitten by a snake or other poisonous reptile, no medicine\nis administered to him, but holy water brought from the temple of the\nvillage goddess is given to him to drink and it is said that the patient\nis cured.\n\nAt Shivam in the Ratnagiri district people use the _tirtha_ of a deity,\nor the water in which its idol is washed, as medicine for diseases due to\npoison. It is the sole remedy they resort to in such cases.\n\nThe water of seven tanks, or at least of one pond, in which lotuses grow,\nis said to check the virulence of measles and smallpox.\n\nA bath in a tank in the Mahim district is said to cure persons suffering\nfrom skin diseases.\n\nThe well at Sihor in Rajputana is sacred to Gautama and is considered\nefficacious in the cure of various disorders.\n\nIn Satara King Sateshwar asked the saint Sumitra for water. The sage was\nwrapped in contemplation, and did not answer him. The angry monarch took\nsome lice from the ground and threw them at the saint, who cursed the\nking with vermin all over his body. This affliction the wretched monarch\nendured for twelve years, until he was cured by ablution at the sacred\nfountain of Devar\u00e2shta.[24]\n\nThe birth of a child under the _mul nakshatra_ endangers the life of its\nfather, but the misfortune is averted if the child and its parents bathe\nin the water drawn from 108 wells. A draught of such water is said to\ncure _Sannipat_ or delirium.\n\nOne of the sacred tanks of India is \u201cthe Lake of Immortality\u201d at\nAmritsar. The name of the city is taken from the sacred tank in which the\nGolden Temple is built. Originally, the place was only a natural pool\nof water and a favourite resort of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh\nreligion. It was known at first as _Guru-ka-chall_, but later when the\ntank was built, the name Amritsar was adopted, _amrit_ meaning water of\nimmortality and _sar_ meaning a tank. A holy woman once took pity on a\nleper, and carried him to the banks of the tank. As he lay there, a crow\nswooped into the water and came out a dove as white as snow. Seeing the\nmiracle, the leper was tempted to bathe in the river and was healed.\nThe woman could not recognize her friend, and withdrew in horror from\nhis embraces. But the Guru Ram D\u00e2s came and explained matters, and \u201cthe\ngrateful pair assisted him in embellishing the tank, which has now become\nthe centre of the Sikh religion.\u201d[25]\n\nThe tank at Lalitpur is similarly famous for the cure of leprosy. One\nday, a R\u00e2j\u00e2 afflicted with the disease was passing by, and his R\u00e2ni\ndreamt that he should eat some of the conferv\u00e6 on the surface. He ate it,\nand was cured; next night the R\u00e2ni dreamt that there was a vast treasure\nconcealed there, which when dug up was sufficient to pay the cost of\nexcavation. At Qasur is the tank of the saint Basant Sh\u00e2h, in which\nchildren are bathed to cure them of boils.[26]\n\nThere are several hot springs in India renowned for their curative\npowers. These also are believed to be sacred to certain deities. A\ntypical example is that of the hot kund, called _Devki-Unai_, about\n30 miles to the south of Surat. Many pilgrims visit the place on the\nfifteenth day of the bright half of _Chaitra_, when the waters are\ncool, to offer money, cocoanuts, and red lead to the _Unai Mata_, whose\ntemple stands near the kund. It is said that king Rama built this kund\nwhile performing a sacrifice and brought water from the _p\u00e2t\u00e2l_ (nether\nregions) by shooting an arrow into the earth.\n\nSimilarly, the famous hot springs forming one group in a line along\nthe bed of the Tansa river in the village of Vadavli are sacred to the\ngoddess Vajrabai or Vajreshvari, the Lady of the Thunderbolt. According\nto tradition, this neighbourhood being full of demons the goddess\nVajrabai became incarnate in the locality to clear it of the wicked\nspirits. She routed the whole lot of them, and the hot water of these\nsprings is nothing but the blood of one of the demons slain by her. Her\nchronicle, or _Mahatmya_, is kept at the village of Gunj, some six miles\nto the north, and her temple is placed at the top of a flight of steps\non a spur of the Sumatra range. A large fair is held here in Chaitra\n(April). There are other hot springs in the neighbouring villages of\nAkloli, known as the Rameshwar hot springs, whose waters are gathered\nout in stone cisterns. In the eighteenth century these springs were much\nused both by Indians and Europeans as a cure for fevers. In his _Oriental\nMemoirs_ James Forbes describes the springs as consisting of small\ncisterns of water with a temperature of 120\u00b0. \u201cExcept that it wanted a\nsmall element of iron the water tasted like that of Bath in England.\u201d In\nthe Ganeshpuri village, about three miles west of Vajrabai, are the two\nhottest springs of the group. These are resorted to by people troubled\nwith skin diseases.\n\nThe Arabs regard the hot springs at Terka Main to be under the control\nof a Vali who makes the fire and keeps it burning. Those who go there to\nbe healed of rheumatism invoke the saint and keep up the fire so that\nthe water may be hot. At the Lunatic Asylum of Hamath there is a pool\nbelieved to be the abode of a Vali who is the patron saint of all insane\npeople. He appears in the night and blesses the insane by touching them.\nEven troublesome children come under the spell of his influence. The\nArabs take the robes of refractory urchins to the pool and wash them in\nit so as to instil wisdom and obedience in the children.\n\nSimilarly, the special function of the Altarnum well was the cure of\nmadness. The afflicted person was made to stand with his back to the\npool and was then tumbled headlong into the water by a sudden blow in\nthe breast. In the water again stood a strong fellow who took him and\ntossed him up and down.[27] This ritual appears to be a survival of human\nsacrifice, while the ritual followed in connection with St. Tecla\u2019s well,\nrenowned for the cure of epilepsy, bears testimony to the practice of\noffering animal sacrifices to the presiding spirits of water.\n\nIn his _Tour in Wales_, speaking of the village of Llandegla, where\nis a church dedicated to St. Tecla, virgin and martyr, who after her\nconversion by St. Paul suffered under Nero at Iconium, Pennant says:\n\u201cAbout two hundred yards from the church, in a quillet called Gwern\nDegla, rises a small spring. The water is under the tutelage of the\nsaint, and to this day held to be extremely beneficial in the falling\nsickness. The patient washes his limbs in the well; makes an offering\ninto it of four-pence; walks round it three times; and thrice repeats\nthe Lord\u2019s Prayer. These ceremonies are never begun till after sunset,\nin order to inspire the votaries with greater awe. If the afflicted be\nof the male sex, like Socrates, he makes an offering of a cock to his\nAesculapius, or rather to Tecla, Hygeia; if of the fair sex, a hen. The\nfowl is carried in a basket, first round the well, after that into the\nchurchyard, when the same orisons and the same circumambulations are\nperformed round the church. The votary then enters the church, gets under\nthe communion-table, lies down with the Bible under his or her head, is\ncovered with the carpet or cloth, and rests there till break of day,\ndeparting after offering six pence, and leaving the fowl in the church.\nIf the bird dies, the cure is supposed to have been effected and the\ndisease transferred to the devoted victim.\u201d\n\nThe most famous healing well in England is perhaps the Holywell, the\nLourdes of Wales. The story of this well is the story of St. Winefride,\nthe waters of whose fount were declared by the Protestant antiquarian,\nPennant, to be \u201calmost as sanative as those of the Pool of Bethesda.\u201d In\nthe 7th century the picturesque valley of Sychnant had as its chieftain\nThewith, whose wife was the sister of St. Beuno, and whose daughter,\nWinefride, was a very beautiful girl, who had many suitors, but who\nresolved to consecrate herself to God in a life of virginity. One of\nthe most persistent of her suitors was Prince Caradoc, who, enraged at\nhis rejection, made a furious onslaught on the girl, compelling her to\nseek safety in flight. With drawn sword he pursued and overtook her on\nthe majestic hill which overlooked the town. Here he cut off her head,\nwhich rolled to the foot of the hill. Till then, Sychnant had been\nwaterless\u2014its name, indeed, signifies the dry valley, but at the spot\nwhere the severed head rested, a copious stream burst forth, forming\na well, the sides of which were lined with fragrant moss, whilst the\nstones at the bottom were tinctured with the youthful martyr\u2019s blood.\nThe head itself was reunited by St. Beuno to Winefride\u2019s body, which was\nimmediately restored to life by the Almighty in response to the saint\u2019s\nprayers. Winefride subsequently became a nun, dying at Gwytherin on\nNovember 3rd, 1660.\n\nAround the Well in Sychnant Valley grew a town which the Saxons named\nTreffynion, and which became known to the Normans as Haliwell, the\nhallowed or holy well, to which pilgrims fared from all parts of the\nkingdom, inspired by the belief that through the intercession of St.\nWinefride they would obtain spiritual and temporal blessings. Through\nthe centuries preceding the Reformation, the Welsh Princes, the monarchs\nof England and the nobles of both countries delighted to bestow marks\nof their favour on Holywell and its shrine and Well of St. Winefride.\nOne of the greatest of these benefactors was the mother of Henry VII.,\nMargaret, Countess of Richmond and Derby, who, in the fifteenth century,\nerected the handsome Gothic chapel and the Well beneath it. The water\nwas received in a magnificent polygonal basin, covered by a groined\narch, supported on pillars. The roof was elaborately carved in stone,\nand many fine ribs secured the arch, whose intersections were completed\nwith sculpture. On one side of the wall was painted the history of St.\nWinefride, whilst the arms of the foundress and those of Henry VII.,\nHenry VIII., Catherine of Aragon, and other benefactors were incorporated\nin the decorations.\n\nThough the church of Holywell was devoted to other uses after the\nReformation, and recourse to the well was regarded as a \u201csuperstitious\npractice,\u201d the tide of visitors never completely ceased to flow. In 1629,\nfor example, a spy is found reporting Sir Cuthbert Clifton as being one\nof a great number of \u201cPapists and priests assembled at St. Winefride\u2019s\nWell on St. Winefride\u2019s Day.\u201d\n\nThe following paragraph from Archbishop Laud\u2019s account of his Province\nfor the year 1633 also shows that in spite of all repressive measures\npilgrims resorted in great numbers to the well:\u2014\n\n    \u201cThe Bishop of St. Asaph returns. That all is exceedingly\n    well in his diocese\u2014save only that the number and boldness of\n    some Romish Recusants increaseth much in many Places, and is\n    encouraged by the superstitions and frequent concourse of some\n    of that party to Holy-Well, otherwise called St. Winifride\u2019s\n    Well. Whether this Concourse be by way of Pilgrimage or no, I\n    know not; but I am sure it hath long been complained of without\n    remedy.\u201d\n\nOne of the visitors in the year 1686 was James II: and in the following\nyear Father Thomas Roberts was appointed priest in charge. The well has\never since been a favourite resort of stricken pilgrims and the modern\ntourist in North Wales can still witness numerous pilgrims journeying\nto St. Winefride\u2019s in the hope of leaving their infirmities behind\nthem. The deaf, the dumb, the blind and the paralysed have for centuries\nbetaken themselves to this well in search of spiritual as well as\nphysical health and the votive crutches, chairs and barrows left hanging\nover the well by the pilgrims who have been able to discard them bear\ntestimony to the healing virtues of its water or at least to the faith of\nthe people in such virtues.\n\nIn Lilly\u2019s History of his life and times a story is given of Sir George\nPeckham, Kt., who died in St. Winefride\u2019s Well, \u201chaving continued so\nlong mumbling his paternosters and _Sancta Winifreda ora pro me_, that\nthe cold struck into his body and after his coming forth of that well he\nnever spoke more.\u201d\n\nTwo recent Holywell cures were reported in the _Catholic Times and\nCatholic Opinion_ of 21st July 1916. Mr. John MacMullan, whose address\nwas 49 Station-Road, Shettleston, Glasgow, decided to try the water\nof St. Winefride\u2019s Well after suffering for three years with chronic\nspinal disease. He bathed in the waters for the first time on July 5th,\nand again on July 6th, when he experienced a sharp shooting pain all\nthrough the body. On July 10th after getting in the well he found that\nhe was able to walk up the steps which descended into the outer basin of\nthe well quite unaided and up to the 12th of July, when he returned to\nScotland, he was able to walk about freely.\n\nThe other noteworthy case following on a visit to St. Winefride\u2019s Well\nis that of Miss Elizabeth Stanley of 54, John Thomas Street, Blackburn.\nShe had her hand cut in a mill while working as a weaver and was unable\nto work for two years. In quest of a cure she made a pilgrimage to St.\nWinefride\u2019s Well on the Feast of Corpus Christi. \u201cSince her return from\nHolywell,\u201d it is reported, \u201cshe has followed her work without any ill\neffects and is at present in the best of health.\u201d\n\nWhile this chapter was being written, a great calamity befell Holywell.\nOwing to the boring operations of the Halken Draining Company the waters\nof this famous well that had been flowing for 1400 years were drained\naway on the 5th January 1917. The valley of Sychnant became once more\n\u201cthe dry valley\u201d, but to the great joy of the people of Holywell and of\nthe Catholic community everywhere the water was restored to the well on\nthe 22nd September 1917.\n\nA few more healing wells in Great Britain may be noted. The \u201cHooping\nStone\u201d on a farm near Athol, is a channeled boulder which catches rain,\nand the water, especially if ladled out with a spoon made from the horn\nof a living cow, cures many ailments. The \u201cFever Well\u201d hard by is also\nstill in high repute. The Mayor and Burgesses of Shaftesbury still go\nto dance round the sacred springs of Enmore Green, hand in hand to the\nsound of music\u2014or did so until recently. They carried a broom decked with\nfeathers, gold rings, and jewels, called a \u201cprize bezant\u201d, and presented\nto the bailiff of the manor of Gillingham (where are the springs) a pair\nof gloves, a raw calf\u2019s head, a gallon of beer and two penny loaves.[28]\n\nAnother holy well, Roche Holy Well of Cornwall, is famous for curing eye\ndiseases. This well, which is dedicated to the lonely hermit by name St.\nConan, is endowed on Holy Thursday, and also the two Thursdays following,\nwith the property of curing eye diseases alike in young and old.\n\nAt Chapel Uny rickety children are dipped three times in the well against\nthe sun, and dragged three times round the well in the same direction.\n\nIn several instances such miraculous cures appear to be well\nauthenticated. Mr. Colin Bennett says that Jesus Well, St. Minver, and\nMadron Holy Well, near Penzance, are cases in point. Bishop Hall, of\nExeter, who visited the latter well in 1640, absolutely vouches, in his\ntreatise on the _Invisible World_, for the cure of a man by name John\nTrelille who had been lame from birth and had to crawl on all fours from\nplace to place. At last he decided to try the virtue of the waters of\nthis holy well for his complaint and, like Naaman of old, bathed himself\nin the little spring, afterwards reclining for an hour and a half on a\ngrassy bank situated near by and known as St. Madrne\u2019s bed while a friend\noffered up simple prayers on his behalf. On the first occasion of this\ntreatment he got some relief, on the second he was able to stand on his\nlegs with the aid of a staff and on the third occasion he found himself\nentirely cured. It is even said that in later life he enlisted in the\narmy and was eventually killed in battle, having previously done good\nwork for his country\u2019s cause. Others have also been cured of the same\naffliction in later times by precisely the same means. Close by this well\nis the ancient oratory of St. Madrne, where on the first Sunday in May a\nservice is still held by the Wesleyans in commemoration of the saintly\nman who once preached in that lonely spot the word of God. After the\nservice the Holy Well is visited by the people, some of whom, says Mr.\nBennett, \u201cgo so far as to consult it concerning futurity.\u201d\n\nMany springs in Macedonia are known and venerated as \u201csacred waters\u201d;\ndedicated to St. Friday and St. Solomon\u00e9 among feminine saints, or\nto St. Paul and St. Elias among their male colleagues. The water of\nthese springs is regarded as efficacious against diseases, especially\neye-complaints. Even so stood enclosed the \u201cfair-flowing fountain\nbuilt by man\u2019s hand, whence the citizens of Ithaca drew water,\u201d and\nclose to it \u201can altar erected in honour of the Nymphs, upon which the\nwayfarers offered sacrifice.\u201d Like the Homeric \u201cfountain of the Nymphs\u201d\nmany a modern \u201choly spring\u201d is overshadowed by \u201cwater-bred poplars or\nbroad-leaved fig-trees, and weeping willows.\u201d[29]\n\nHundreds of cures are effected even now at the Church of the Annunciation\nover the Chapel of the well during the Festival of Annunciation at Tenos.\nDuring her visit to the place Miss Hamilton saw priests spooning out the\nsacred water to an eager crowd, one by one, \u201cafter the fashion of a\nmedicine-giving nurse.\u201d Miss Hamilton is, however, guilty of repeating\na very blasphemous story concerning a spring of therapeutic fame. Up to\nquite recent times the festival at Kaisariani was very popular among the\nAthenians and sick people were taken there for cure at the spring on the\nAscension Day, the only day on which the spring water ran into the little\nChapel, and in a miraculous way a white dove, the Holy Spirit, appeared\nand wet its wings in the holy water. Then all the sick people drank of\nthe water or washed in it and expected to be healed. One festival day\nthis dove failed to appear, and the priest knocked with his foot and\nwhispered, \u201cLet out the Holy Spirit.\u201d A voice from the hole replied\naudibly, \u201cThe cat has eaten it.\u201d This was enough to suppress the miracle.\n\nThe pilgrimage described by Miss Hamilton recalls the vivid scenes in\nEmile Zola\u2019s famous novel _Lourdes_. In that masterpiece of his the great\nmaster of M\u00e9dan has given us a marvellously animated and poetic narrative\nof the annual national pilgrimage to the famous Continental shrine. The\nidea of human suffering pervades the whole story and the woful account\nof the despairing sufferers given up by science and by man and of the\nreligious enthusiasm with which they address themselves to a higher\nPower in the hope of relief and hasten to Lourdes and crowd themselves\nround the miraculous Grotto, is touching indeed. The author, no doubt,\naccompanies the stricken pilgrims without sharing their belief in the\nvirtues of the water of Lourdes. He witnesses several instances of real\ncure, accepts the extraordinary manifestations of the healing power of\nthe waters, but tries to account for them on scientific grounds. Be the\nexplanation as it may, _Lourdes_ affords striking illustrations of the\nfaith of the people in the miracles of the enchanted fountain.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nPROCREATIVE POWERS OF WATER SPIRITS.\n\n\nWater-spirits being authors of fertility in general, it is natural that\nthey should be credited with the power of fertilizing human beings as\nwell as animals. In many places the power of bestowing offspring is\nascribed to them, and several wells in India have a reputation for\nconferring the blessings of parenthood.\n\nThe Hindus believe that \u201ca son secures three worlds, a grandson bliss,\nand a great grandson a seat even above the highest heavens. By begetting\na virtuous son one saves oneself as well as the seven preceding and seven\nsucceeding generations.\u201d Childless women, therefore, resort to various\nexpedients. Of these pilgrimages to shrines of saints and visits to\nFaqirs and Mullas who have miraculous charms in their possession are most\ncommon. But the most effective charm is water. In many parts of India the\nwater of seven wells is collected on the night of the Dewali, or feast of\nlamps, and barren women bathe in it as a means of procuring children. A\nmore elaborate ritual is observed by the domiciled Hindus of Baluchistan.\nThere the childless woman takes water from seven different wells, tanks\nor springs and places into it leaves of seven kinds of fruit-bearing\ntrees. She then doffs her clothes, wraps a cotton sheet around her and\nsits over the board of a spinning wheel under the wooden spout of a\nhouse, with some of the leaves under her feet. Another woman, blest with\nliving children, mounts to the top of the house, and pours the mystical\nwater on the roof so that it trickles over the childless woman through\nthe spout. After the bath she dons new clothes and greets her husband and\nimpregnation takes place immediately. The same ceremony is resorted to in\ncases in which successive girls have been born, and the birth of a son is\nassured.[30]\n\nIn a _vav_ in Orissa priests throw betel-nuts into the mud and barren\nwomen scramble for them. Those who find them will have their desire\nfor children gratified. For the same reason, the mother is taken after\nchildbirth to worship the village well. She walks round it in the course\nof the sun and smears the platform with red lead, which is a survival of\nthe original rite of blood sacrifice. In Dharwar the child of a Brahman\nis taken in the third month to worship water at the village well. There\nis also a belief in Gujarat that barren couples get children if they\nbathe in a waterfall and offer cocoanuts.\n\nIn the Punjab sterile women desiring offspring are let down into a well\non a Sunday or a Tuesday night during the Dewali. After the bath they\nare drawn up again and they perform the _Chaukpurna_ ceremony with\nincantations. When this ceremony has been performed, the well is supposed\nto run dry. Its quickening and fertilizing virtue has been abstracted by\nthe woman.[31] This practice has its counterpart in a custom observed by\nSyrian women at the present day. Some of the channels of the Orontos are\nused for irrigation, but at a certain season of the year the streams are\nturned off and the dry bed of the channels is cleared of mud and other\nimpurities, obstructing a free flow of water. The first night that the\nwater is turned on again, it is said to have the power of procreation.\nAccordingly, barren women take their places in the channel, waiting for\nthe entrance of the water-spirit in the rush of the stream.\n\nSir James Frazer says that in Scotland the same fertilizing virtue used\nto be, and probably still is, ascribed to certain springs. Wives who\nwished to become mothers formerly resorted to the well of St. Fillan at\nComrie and to the wells of St. Mary at Whitekirk and in the Isle of May.\nIn the Aran Islands, off the coast of Galway, women desirous of children\npray at St. Eany\u2019s Well and the men pray at the Rag Well by the Church\nof the Four Comely Ones at Onaght. Similarly, Child\u2019s Well in Oxford was\nsupposed to have \u201cthe virtue of making barren women to bring forth.\u201d Near\nBingfield in Northumberland there is a copious sulphur spring known as\nthe Borewell. About Midsummer day a great fair is held there and barren\nwomen pray at the well that they might become mothers.\n\nSome folklorists, Sir James Frazer included, consider that sterility was\nbelieved by people to be a disease due, as in the case of other maladies,\nto the work of demoniacal agency. They therefore include this practice\nof bathing in wells for the blessings of motherhood in the same category\nin which they place the cult of the bath based on popular faith in the\nhealing powers of water. But there is probably another explanation for\nthis practice. Students of the rites and customs observed by the Semitic\npeople are aware that procreative power was attributed by these people\nto the spirits. Professor Curtiss bears testimony to this and he says\nthat even Moslems and Christians of Syria conceived of God as possessed\nof a complete male organism. It was a common belief amongst the Syrians\nthat the genii, both male and female, had sexual intercourse with human\nbeings and the view that the spirits of the dead may beget children also\nprevailed. When a man had been executed for murder in Jerusalem, about\nfifty years ago, some barren women rushed up to the corpse. It may be,\nsays Curtiss, that they felt that, inasmuch as the man had been released\nby death from previous nuptials and was free, as a disembodied spirit, he\nwas endowed with supernatural power to give them the joy of motherhood by\nproximity to his dead body. After his recent researches in Syria Curtiss\nsays that this belief in the procreative powers of the dead is still\ncommon.\n\nThere are three places at the so-called baths of Solomon in Syria, where\nthe hot air comes out of the ground. One of these hot air vents, called\nAbu Rabah, is a famous shrine for women who are barren and desire\nchildren. They in fact regard the _Vali_ (Saint) of the shrine as the\nfather of children born after such a visit, as appears from the English\nrendering of an Arabic couplet, which they repeat as they go inside the\nsmall inclosure and allow the hot air to steam up their bodies:\n\n    \u201cOh, Abu Rabah,\n    To thee come the white ones,\n    To thee come the fair ones;\n    With thee is the generation,\n    With us is the conception.\u201d\n\nThese verses clearly unfold the minds of the women who woo the spirits\nfor the joys of motherhood. May not the corresponding faith of Indian\nwomen in sanctified waters be traced to similar ideas? The Bombay and\nOrissa practices described above do not materially support that view, but\nthe Punjab practice and the belief of the Punjabis that the well runs dry\nafter the bath and that its fertilizing virtue is abstracted by the women\nbathing in it are very significant.\n\nThe Jews also believed in the possibility of conception occurring in a\nbath _in quo spermatizaverat homo_. Ben Sira was said to have been the\nson of a daughter of Jeremiah who became _enceinte_ from her father in\nthat way. \u201cIndeed,\u201d says Dr. Feldman, \u201cthe Rabbi who expressed himself\nas a believer in such an occurrence was Simon ben Zoma, a sage of the\nsecond century A.D., who devoted a good deal of his time to metaphysical\nproblems, and whose mind gave way in consequence. The question that was\nasked of him, no doubt sarcastically, was whether the High Priest, who\nmay only marry a virgin, was allowed to marry a pregnant virgin. Ben Zoma\nanswered the question in the affirmative, because, said he, conception\nwas possible in a bath in which a man had just before washed himself.\u201d[32]\n\nThis theory, observes Dr. Feldman, was still in vogue even among\nphysicians of the twelfth century. Averroes, an Arabian physician who\ndied in 1198, records that an acquaintance of his, whose _bona fide_\nwas beyond dispute, stated on her oath that _impregnata fuerat subito\nin balneo lavelti aqu\u00e6 calid\u00e6 in quo spermatizaverunt mali homines cum\nessent balneati in illo balneo_. Another author explains the possibility\nof such an occurrence as follows: _Quia vulva trahit sperma propter suam\npropriam virtutem_.\n\n\u201cIn the sixteenth century,\u201d continues Dr. Feldman, \u201cwe find the\nPortuguese Amatus Lusitanus (1550) making use of the same theory to\nexplain the delivery of a mole by a nun; and, according to Stern, this\nbelief is prevalent in Turkey even at the present day. The Rabbis of the\nMiddle Ages also believed in such a possibility. Even as late as the\nbeginning of the eighteenth century this belief prevailed, and R. Juda\nRozanes, Rabbi of Constantinople, who, on the authority of Maimonides,\nconsidered such an occurrence improbable, was reprimanded by Azulai.\u201d\n\nIn Scotland persons who bore the name of the river Tweed were supposed to\nhave as ancestors the genii of the river of that name. Could this curious\nbelief have sprung from similar ideas concerning the procreative powers\nof the water-spirits?\n\nThese conceptions of the generative power of water have their parallel\nin a Semong tradition. These people, among whom marital relationship is\npreceded by great ante-nuptial freedom, have a legend of a people in\ntheir old home, composed of women only. \u201cThese women know not men, but\nwhen the moon is at the full, they dance naked in the grassy places near\nthe salt lakes, the evening wind is their only spouse, and through him\nthey conceive and bear children.\u201d[33]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nWISHING AND CURSING WELLS.\n\n\nIn East and West alike there are oracular wells inhabited by spirits\ngifted with powers of divination. The instance of the well in Ghoga\nStreet in Bombay has already been noted. There is a _kund_ in Baladana\nnear Wadhawan, dedicated to Hol, the favourite _mata_ of the Charans. In\nthis _kund_, black or red _gagar bedinus_ pieces of cotton thread are\nsometimes seen floating on the water. They appear only for a moment, and\nsink if any one endeavours to seize them. The appearance of black pieces\nforbodes famine; but the red ones foretell prosperity. At Askot, in the\nHimalayas, there is a holy well which is used for divining the prospects\nof the harvest. If the spring in a given time fills the brass vessel to\nthe brim into which the water falls, there will be a good season; if only\na little water comes, drought may be expected. In a well in Kashmir those\nwho have any special desires throw a nut. If it floats, it is considered\nan omen of success. If it sinks, it is a sign of misfortune.\n\nWith this may be compared the divinations performed by sailors at the\nfountain of Recoverance or St. Laurent. To know the future state of the\nweather they cast on the waters of the fountain a morsel of bread. If the\nbread floats, says Evans Wentz in _Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries_, it\nis a sure sign of fair weather, but if it sinks, of weather so bad that\nno one should venture to go out in the fishing boats. Similarly, in some\nwells, pins are dropped by lovers. If the pins float, the water-spirits\ngive a promise of favourable auspices, but if the pins sink, the maiden\nis unhappy, and will hesitate in accepting the proposal of marriage.\n\nThe most famous modern oracle in Greece is the well at Amorgos. It stands\nin a little side shrine, where the priest offers a prayer to St. George.\nThen he draws some water from the well in a small vessel and diagnoses\nthe contents. The rules for the interpretation are quite lengthy, but\nthe answers are usually ambiguous. These answers are given according to\nthe foreign matter in the water. For example, hair denotes trouble and\nsickness.\n\nNear Kirkmichael in Banff there is a fountain, once highly celebrated\nand anciently dedicated to St. Michael. Many a patient has by its waters\nbeen restored to health, and many more have attested the efficacy of\ntheir virtues. But, as the presiding power is sometimes capricious, and\napt to desert his charge, the fountain now lies neglected, choked with\nweeds, unhonoured and unfrequented. In better days, it was not so; for\nthe winged guardian, under the semblance of a fly, was never absent from\nhis duty. If the sober matron wished to know the issue of her husband\u2019s\nailment, and the love-sick nymph that of her languishing swain, they\nvisited the well of St. Michael. Every movement of the sympathetic fly\nwas regarded in silent awe; and as he appeared cheerful or dejected, the\nanxious votaries drew their presages; and their breasts vibrated with\ncorresponding emotions.[34]\n\nSimilarly, at a Cornish well, people used to go and inquire about absent\nfriends. If the person \u201cbe living and in health, the still, quiet waters\nof the well-pit will instantly bubble or boil up as a pot of clear,\ncrystal-like water; if sick, foul and puddled water; if dead, it will\nneither boil nor bubble up, nor alter its colour or stillness.\u201d\n\nIn his Monastic Remains, More refers to the existence of two wishing\nwells in Walsingham Chapel. \u201cThe wishing wells,\u201d he observes, \u201cstill\nremain, two circular stone pits filled with water, enclosed with a\nsquare wall, where the pilgrims used to kneel and throw in a piece of\ngold whilst they prayed for the accomplishment of their wishes.\u201d\n\nPennant in his account of St. Winefride\u2019s well says: \u201cNear the steps,\ntwo feet beneath the water is a large stone, called the wishing stone.\nIt receives many a kiss from the faithful who are supposed never to fail\nin experiencing the completion of their desires, provided the wish is\ndelivered with full devotion and confidence.\u201d\n\nAnother famous wishing well is in Cornwall, named the Fairy Well, Carbis\nBay. After the enquirer has formed his wish with his back to the well, he\nthrows a pin over his left shoulder. If it strikes the water he obtains\nhis wish, if it falls on the bank, he is disappointed. \u201cThe little well,\u201d\nsays Mr. Colin Bennett in the _Good Words Magazine_, \u201cis much resorted\nto at the present day by tourists and all those who have a sense of the\nquaintness or romance of such ancient observances.\u201d\n\nThe priestess of Gulval Well in Fosses Moor was an old woman who\ninstructed the devotees in their ceremonial observances. They had to\nkneel down and lean over the well so as to see their faces in the water\nand repeat after their instructor a rhyming incantation, after which, the\nreply of the spirit of the well was interpreted by the bubbling of the\nwater or its quiescence.\n\nJust as there are wishing wells, there are cursing wells also, scattered\nthrough Europe, particularly in Celtic countries. The Kelts of Bretagne,\nsays Major-General Forlong,[35] still fear not only \u201cour Lady of Hate,\u201d\nbut also the \u201cWell of Cursing.\u201d The belief was, and perhaps still is,\nthat if certain evil rites are performed, and a stone inscribed with\nthe enemy\u2019s name is thrown into such a well, the victim will pine away\nand die, unless he who has inflicted the curse relents, and removes the\nbaneful charm ere it be too late.[36]\n\nNear the well of St. Aelian, not far from Betteas Abergeley in\nDenbighshire, resided a woman who officiated as a kind of priestess.\nAny one who wished to inflict a curse upon an enemy resorted to this\npriestess, and for a trifling sum she registered in a book kept for the\npurpose the name of the person on whom the curse was intended to fall.\nA pin was then dropped into the well in the name of the victim and the\ncurse was complete.[37]\n\nVaried indeed are the virtues of Holy Wells and the wonders connected\nwith them. A peculiar property of the water of St. Keyne is that whoever\nfirst drinks of it after marriage becomes the ruler in the household. \u201cI\nknow not,\u201d says Fuller, \u201cwhether it be worth the reporting, that there is\nin Cornwall, near the parish of St. Neots, a well, arched over with the\nrobes of four kinds of trees, withy, oak, elm, and ash, dedicated to St.\nKeyne. The reported virtue of the water is this, that whether husband or\nwife come first to drink thereof, they get the mastery thereby.\u201d After\nhis visit to Cornwall Southey celebrated this well in the famous poem,\n\u201cThe Well of St. Keyne.\u201d\n\n    \u201cSt. Keyne,\u201d quoth the Cornish-man, \u201cmany a time\n      Drank of this crystal Well,\n    And before the Angel summon\u2019d her,\n      She laid on the water a spell.\n\n    \u201cIf the Husband of this gifted Well\n      Shall drink before his Wife,\n    A happy man thenceforth is he,\n      For he shall be Master for life.\n\n    \u201cBut if the Wife should drink of it first,\n      God help the husband then!\u201d\n    The Stranger stoopt to the Well of St. Keyne,\n      And drank of the water again.\n    \u201cYou drank of the Well I warrant betimes?\u201d\n      He to the Cornish-man said:\n    But the Cornish-man smiled as the Stranger spake,\n      And sheepishly shook his head.\n\n    \u201cI hasten\u2019d as soon as the wedding was done,\n      And left my Wife in the porch;\n    But i\u2019 faith she had been wiser than me,\n      For she took a bottle to Church.\u201d\n\nAt the foot of Carn Brea Hill is a little well dedicated to St. Eunius.\nTo be baptised in the water drawn from this is a sure safeguard against\ndeath by hanging.\n\nOf the Rin Mochan pool the Brahmins say that any one who bathes there\nbecomes free from debt.\n\nStrange traditions are not wanting, says Mr. Colin Bennett,[38] to\naccount for the wonderful state in which these wells are preserved. It\nis impossible to remove the stones of the well of St. Cleer, which is\nsituated near Liskeard. True, they may be carted away at daytime, but\nthey all return at night and deposit themselves in heaps on the site from\nwhich they were taken. Similar stories are related of the marvellous\npowers of the basin which catches the water as it issues from the spring\nat St. Nun\u2019e Well, Pelynt, near Looe and of the Bisland Holy Well the\nground surrounding which can never be broken for tillage on penalty of\ndisaster to the family of the person attempting to do so.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nMALEFICENT WATER-GOBLINS.\n\n\nSo far we have met beneficent spirits of the divine sea and blessed\nsprings and wells. Let us not forget that there are also maleficent\ndeities and mischievous water-goblins infesting ill-omened streams and\nwells. In India where the lives and fortunes of cattle and people alike\nhang on the precarious seasonal rainfall, the water-spirits are as a rule\nregarded as friendly dispensers of life and fertility. Even the sea-gods\nare on the whole beneficent beings. The _Darya-Pirs_ of the Luvanas\n(merchants) and Kharvas (sailors) are devoid of mischief and are regarded\nas patron saints. Elsewhere, however, the perils of the deep and rapid\nrivers and treacherous pools gave the water-spirits a bad name and their\nfury emphasized the need for propitiating them with sacrifices. Thus it\ncomes to pass that western folklore abounds in blood-thirsty water-demons\nwho are very often conceived as hideous serpents or dragons. But, as\nwe have already noticed, people of India also have their mischievous\nwater-sprites, the _M\u00e2t\u00e2s_ and _Shankhinies_ who haunt wayside wells and\neither drown or enterthe persons of those who go near their wells. These\nghosts and goblins\u2014_bhuts_ and _prets_\u2014are known as _Jalachar_, _i.e._,\nliving in water, as contrasted with _Bhuchar_, those hovering on the\nearth. One has to propitiate these malignant deities and spirits.\n\nIt is believed that most of the demons haunting wells and tanks are the\nspirits of those who have met death by drowning. There are also the\nspirits of those who die of accidents before the fulfilment of their\nworldly desires or the souls of the deceased who do not receive the\nfuneral _pindas_ with the proper obsequies. These fallen souls in their\n_avagati_ or degraded condition reside near the scene of their death and\nmolest those who approach the water. There is a _vav_ called _Nilkanth\nvav_ near Movaiya, in which a _Pinjari_ (a female cotton carder) is said\nto have been drowned and to have been turned into a ghost, in which form\nshe occasionally presents herself to the people.\n\nAnother _vav_ in Vadhwan is haunted by a ghost called Mahda, who drowns\none human being every third year as a victim. But a male spirit, named\nKshetrapal, resides in the _kotta_ (or entrance) of the _vav_, and saves\nthose who fall near the entrance. Those who fall in any other part are,\nhowever, sure to be drowned.\n\nThere is in Mirzapur a famous water-hole, known as Barewa. A herdsman\nwas once grazing his buffaloes near the place, when the waters rose in\nfury and carried him off with his cattle. The drowned buffaloes have\nnow taken the form of a dangerous demon known as _Bhainsasura_, or the\nbuffalo-demon, and he lives there in company with the Naga and the Nagin\nand none dare fish there until he has propitiated these demons with the\nofferings of a fowl, eggs and goat.\n\nUntil recently the Bengalis believed that a water-spirit in the form of\nan old hag called _Jat\u00e9 Buddi_ haunted tanks and ponds and fettered with\nan invisible chain the feet of persons who approached her territories.\nEven to this day the name of this witch is taken to frighten naughty\nchildren. Another Bengal spirit, called _Jakh_, was believed to reside\nin tanks and to guard hidden treasure. Woe to the man who threw covetous\neyes on that treasure! The Sion Indians believe in a water-demon called\nUnk-tahe who, like the Siamese spirit Pnuk, drags underneath the water\nthose who go to bathe in it.[39]\n\nCorresponding to these haunted wells are the water holes in Scotland,\nknown as the \u201ccups of the fairies,\u201d and the Trinity Well in Ireland into\nwhich no one can gaze with impunity, and from which the river Bayne once\nburst forth in pursuit of a lady who had insulted it.\n\nIn Indian folklore this wicked class of water-nymphs is known as Apsar\u00e1s.\nThe village of Mith-B\u00e1v in Ratnagiri is a well-known resort of these\nnymphs and the villagers relate many a thrilling story of persons drowned\nand carried off by them in the river. Another favourite habitat of these\nwater-spirits is a tank in the village of Hindalem in the same district.\nEvery reservoir of water in Thana is believed to be a habitat of\nwater-nymphs. Some, however, believe that they dwell only in those lakes\nin which lotuses grow. The images of seven _apsar\u00e1s_ are particularly\nworshipped by the people, _viz._, Machhi, Kurmi, Karkati, Darduri,\nJatupi, Somapa and Makari.\n\nGreek folklore represents these nymphs as tall and slim, clad in\nwhite, with flowing golden hair, and divinely beautiful, so much so\nthat the highest compliment that can be paid to a Greek maiden is\nto compare her in loveliness to a Neraida. Such beauty, however, is\nfatal to the beholder and many a story is related of people who having\nexposed themselves to its fascination were bereft of speech or suffered\notherwise. A single illustration will suffice. In the island of Chios\nis a bridge called the Maid\u2019s Bridge, which is popularly believed to\nbe haunted by a water-spirit. Early one morning a man was crossing the\nbridge on his way from the village of Daphnona to the capital city, when\nhe met a tall young woman dressed in white. She took him by the hand\nand made him dance with her. He was foolish enough to speak and was\nimmediately struck dumb. He recovered, however, some days after, thanks\nto the prayers and exorcisms of a priest.\n\nSo too the sirens frequent an island near the coast of Italy and entice\nseamen by the sweetness of their song which is so bewitching that the\nlisteners forget everything and die of hunger. In Homeric mythology there\nwere only two sirens, later writers named three, and the number has since\nbeen augmented by those who loved \u201clords many and gods many.\u201d\n\nPlato says there are three kinds of sirens\u2014the celestial, the generative\nand the cathartic. The first are under the government of Jupiter,\nthe second under the government of Neptune, and the third under the\ngovernment of Pluto. When the soul is in heaven, the sirens seek, by\nharmonic motion, to unite it to the divine life of the celestial host;\nand when in Hades, to conform them to the infernal regimen, but on earth\nthey produce generation, of which the sea is emblematic.\n\nWe may tarry a little here to greet a beneficent class of sea-nymphs.\nThese are the Nereids, fifty in number, named after Nereid, daughter of\nNereus, the sea-god whose sway extended over the \u00c6gean Sea. Camoens,\nin his _Lusiad_, has spiritualised their office, and he makes them the\nsea-guardians of the virtuous. According to a legend they went before the\nfleet of Vasco da Gama, and when the treacherous pilot supplied by the\nKing of Mozambique steered his ship towards a sunken rock, these guardian\nnymphs pressed against the prow, lifting it from the water and turning it\nround.\n\nTo turn back to the malevolent spirits. At Dervinato, a village in the\nisland of Chios, there is a fountain-head, or \u201cwater mother,\u201d the common\nGreek expression for a spring, called Plaghia, which is reputed to be the\nhaunt of a Black Giant. This monster is a crafty demon of Oriental origin\nwho lures the guileless to destruction by various stratagems, generally\nby assuming the form of a fair maid. He is a being mortally dreaded by\nthe peasantry, and is not so often met with as the water-spirit.\n\nThere is also the Drakos, a cousin-german to the Black Giant. Like the\nBlack Giant he also haunts the wells and works mischief on the people by\nwithholding the water. This trick of the monster is alluded to in the\nfollowing lines, which form the beginning of a song heard at Nigrita:\u2014\n\n    Yonder at St. Theodore\u2019s, yonder at St. George\u2019s,\n    A fair was held, a great fair.\n    The space was narrow and the crowd was large.\n    The Drakos held back the water and the people were athirst,\n    Athirst was also a lady who was heavy with child.\n\nIn Greek legends the Drakos figures as a large uncouth monster akin to\nthe Troll of Norse and the Ogre and Giant of British and Continental\nfairy tales. His simplicity of mind is only equalled by his might and he\nis easily bamboozled. He is also regarded as a performer of superhuman\nfeats. As in Ireland there is a Giant\u2019s Causeway, so in Macedonia we find\na \u201cDrakos\u2019s Weight\u201d (a big stone to the south of Nigrita), a \u201cDrakos\u2019s\nShovelful,\u201d (a mound of earth), a \u201cDrakos\u2019s Tomb,\u201d a rock in the same\nneighbourhood, resembling a high-capped _Dervish_, resting against the\nslope of the hill, and a \u201cDrakos\u2019s Quoits,\u201d two solitary rocks standing\nin the plain of Serres.\n\nVarious superstitions concerning drowning can be easily traced to\nthis belief in mischievous water-spirits. These spirits demand human\nsacrifices and those who get drowned are supposed to be their victims.\nThus, when in Germany a person comes by his death from drowning, the\nGermans say: \u201cThe river-spirit claims his annual sacrifice,\u201d or that\n\u201cthe nix has taken the drowned man.\u201d In India _pujas_ are invariably\noffered to propitiate these spirits before any member of a family starts\non a journey involving the crossing of the deep or of the rivers. While\npassing over creeks and streams, travellers on the Indian Railways will\nnotice even to-day many a traveller, Hindu and Parsi, male and female,\nthrowing from the train cocoanuts, sugar and flowers in the water in\nthe devout hope of averting accidents. The followers of Islam, however,\nbelieve that God Almighty would, by reason of the benign influence of His\nname, preserve them from drowning. Therefore, whilst starting on a voyage\nthey chant the following couplet from Surah Nooh of the _Koran_, as a\nprotective from drowning:\u2014\n\n_Bismillaheh Majriha O Mursaha inna Rabi-ul-ghafur ul-Rahim_, meaning,\n\u201cThe moving and stopping (of this boat, Noah\u2019s Ark) depends upon the\ninfluence of the Name of God, for, in truth, our Lord is pre-eminently a\nPardoner of sins and merciful.\u201d\n\nIn the same way Bengal boatmen cry \u201cBadar,\u201d \u201cBadar,\u201d when a boat is\nin danger of capsizing, in the hope that the saint Khwaja Khizr would\nprotect them.\n\nOthers wear amulets to ward off the danger of drowning. In \u201cUnbeaten\nTracks in Japan,\u201d Miss Bird says that the amulet which saves the Japs\nfrom drowning is \u201ca certain cure for choking, if courageously swallowed.\u201d\nSome sailors believe that if a portion of the cowl which covers the face\nof some children at the time of birth be worn as an amulet round the\nneck, the person wearing it will not get drowned, while some Bengalees\nbelieve that if a person accidentally eats ants along with sweets or any\nfoodstuff, he will not get drowned.[40]\n\nOnce, however, a man is in the grip of the water-spirit, to venture to\nsave him is, according to various widespread beliefs, sure to bring on\ndisaster. In several places, therefore, including Great Britain, people\nshow great reluctance to save a drowning person, because, as suggested\nby Tylor, they fear the vengeance of the water-spirit, who would, in\nconsequence, be deprived of his prey.\n\nThus we gather from Tudor\u2019s _Orkney and Shetland_, that amongst the\nseamen of those places it was deemed unlucky to rescue persons from\ndrowning since it was held as a matter of religious faith that the sea\nwas entitled to certain victims, and that, if deprived, it would avenge\nitself on those who interfere. The still more cautious and considerate\npeople in the Solomon Islands go a step further. If a man accidentally\nfalls into the river and a shark attacks him, he is not allowed to\nescape. If he does succeed in eluding the shark, his fellow-tribesmen\nwill throw him back to his doom, believing him to be marked out for\nsacrifice to the god of the river.[41]\n\nIn his \u201cFolk Medicine\u201d Black accounts for this superstition on the ground\nthat it is believed that the spirits of people who have died a violent\ndeath may return to earth if they can find a substitute and that hence\nthe soul of the last dead man would feel insulted or injured by anyone\npreventing another from taking his place. Some people on the other hand\nbelieve that the reluctance to save drowning persons is due to the belief\nthat the person rescued from being drowned would inflict mischief on the\nman who saves his life. It would seem from Walter Scott\u2019s novel[42] that\nthis belief prevailed in Scotland. In it asks the pedlar Bryce: \u201cAre\nyou mad? You that have lived so long in Zetland to risk the saving of a\ndrowning man? Wot ye not if we bring him to life again, he will be sure\nto do you capital injury?\u201d\n\nThis superstition appears to have been confined to the West only. In the\nEast, luckily, there is no such antipathy to extend a helping hand to the\ndrowning. It may be mentioned, however, that in his _Popular Religion and\nFolklore of Northern India_ Crooke seems to suggest that this feeling is\nalso common in India, but he cites no examples although he gives several\ninstances and quotes several authorities concerning the Western ideas on\nthe subject. We, however, find no such instance recorded anywhere. In the\nyear 1893 Mr. Sarat Chandra Mitra read before the Anthropological Society\nof Bombay a paper on some superstitions regarding drowning. He quoted\nseveral Western examples concerning the aversion to save drowning people\nbut gave no parallel for any of these from the folklore of Bengal and\nUpper India with which he is intimately familiar. If such antipathy did\nexist, that indefatigable student of Indian folklore would have certainly\nheard of it.\n\nCrooke appears to have confounded two separate, though analogous, ideas,\nand to have assumed that the prevalence of one connotes the existence of\nthe other. There is, of course, abundant evidence in Indian folklore\nto show that it was believed throughout this country that the spirits\nof those persons who got drowned wandered for a hundred years if their\ncorpses were not properly and solemnly buried with all the requisite\nceremonies. The spirits of the drowned are, therefore, believed to haunt\nthose rivers and wells and tanks in which they have found their graves,\njust as the fisher-folk of England believed that the spirits of the\nsailors who were drowned by a shipwreck frequented those parts of the\nshores near which the shipwreck took place. In his \u201cRomances in the West\nof England\u201d Hunt refers to these superstitions. The mere prevalence,\nhowever, of one of the superstitious beliefs of the same class in two\ncountries does not warrant the sweeping assertion that the other beliefs\nalso prevail in both the countries.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nRIVER WRAITHS.\n\n\nThe worst of all ill-omened streams in India is the dread _Vaitaran\u00ee_,\nthe river of death, which is localized in Orissa and which pours its\nstream of ordure and blood on the confines of the realm of Yama.[43] Ill\nfares the man who in that dread hour lacks the aid of a priest and the\nholy cow to help him to the other shore. But the Indian water furies\nare easily propitiated. Goats, or fish, or fowl, or even flowers and\ncocoanuts are enough to appease them. Thus the Tapti and the Sutlej\nreceive goats, whereas the Jata Rohini, the Deo infesting the Karsa,\na river in Mirzapur, is pleased with a fish caught by the Buiga and\npresented to him. Many of the continental water deities, however, must\nneeds have human sacrifices, just as the African river spirit Prah,\nwho must have every year in October two human sacrifices, one male and\none female. Thus in England the River Tees, the Skerne, and the Ribble\nhave each a sprite, who, in popular belief, demands human victims. The\nRibble\u2019s sprite is known by the name of Peg O\u2019Nell, and a spring in\nthe grounds of Waddow bears her name and is graced by a stone image,\nnow headless, which, according to Sir Laurence Gomme,[44] is said to\nrepresent her. A tradition connects the Peg O\u2019Nell with an ill-used\nservant at Waddow Hall, who, in revenge for her mistress\u2019s successful\nmalediction in causing her death, was inexorable in demanding every seven\nyears a life to be quenched in the waters of the Ribble. \u201cPeg\u2019s night\u201d\nwas the closing night of the septenniate, and when it came round, unless\na bird, a cat, or a dog was drowned in the stream, some human being was\ncertain to fall a victim there.\n\nThe sprite of the Tees is called Peg Powler, a sort of Lorelei, says\nHenderson in his _Folklore of Northern Counties_, with green tresses and\nan insatiable desire for human life. Children were warned from playing on\nthe banks of this river by threats that Peg Powler would drag them into\nthe water.\n\nA horrid Kelpie or water-horse is said to infest the Yore, near\nMiddleham. Every evening he rises from the stream and ramps along the\nmeadows searching for prey, and it is believed that the Kelpie claims at\nleast one human victim annually.\n\nThe River Spey must also have at least one victim yearly, while\n\n    Blood-thirsty Dee\n    Each year needs three.\n\nAnother curious belief concerning the Dee may also be noted. In his\n_Itinerary through Wales_ Giraldus Cambrensis states that the inhabitants\nof places near Chester assert that the waters of the river change their\nfords every month and that as it inclines more towards England or Wales\nthey can with certainty prognosticate which nation will be successful or\nunfortunate during the year.\n\nThe saying runs that \u201cSt. John the Baptist must have a runner, must have\na swimmer, must have a climber.\u201d As if this were not enough, in Cologne\nhe requires no less than seven swimmers and seven climbers.\n\nEven to this day some German rivers, such as the Saale and the Spree,\nrequire their victims on Midsummer Day. During that parlous season\npeople are careful not to bathe in it. Again, where the beautiful Neckar\nflows under the ruins of Heidleberg Castle, the spirit of the river\nseeks to drown three persons, one on Midsummer Eve, one on Midsummer\nDay, and one on the day after. On these nights if you hear a shriek,\nas of a drowning man or woman from the water, beware of running to the\nrescue; for it is only the water-fairy shrieking to lure you to your\ndoom. In Voigtland it was formerly the practice to set up a fine May\ntree, adorned with all kinds of things, on _St. John\u2019s Day_. The people\ndanced round it, and when the lads had fetched down the things with which\nit was tricked out, the tree was thrown into the water. But before this\nwas done, they sought out somebody whom they treated in the same manner,\nand the victim of this horseplay was called \u201cthe John.\u201d The brawls and\ndisorders, which this custom provoked, led to a suppression of the whole\nceremony which was obviously only a modification of an older custom\nof actually drowning a human being. At Rotenberg on the Neckar people\nthrow a loaf of bread into the water on St. John\u2019s Day, otherwise the\nriver-god would grow angry and carry away a man. Elsewhere, however, the\nwater-sprite is content with flowers. In Bohemia people cast garlands\nin the water on Midsummer Eve and if the water-sprite pulls one of them\ndown, it is a sign that the person who threw the garland in will die. In\nthe villages of Hesse the girl who first comes to a well early in the\nmorning of Midsummer Day places on the mouth of the well a gay garland of\nmany sorts of flowers culled by her from fields and meadows. Sometimes a\nnumber of such garlands are twined together to form a crown with which\nthe well is decked. At Fluda, in addition to the floral decorations\nof the wells, the neighbours choose a Lord of the Wells and announce\nhis election by sending him a great nosegay of flowers. His house is\ndecorated with green boughs and children walk in procession to it. He\ngoes from house to house collecting materials for a feast, of which the\nneighbours partake on the following Sunday. What the other duties of the\nLord of Wells may be, we are not told. We may however conjecture, says\nSir James Frazer, that in old days he had to see to it that the spirits\nof the water received their dues from men and maidens on that important\nday.[45]\n\nIn those moments of the civilized man\u2019s life when he casts off hard dull\nscience, and returns to childhood\u2019s fancy, the world-old book of animated\nnature is open to him anew. Then, says Tylor, the well-worn thoughts\ncome back fresh to him, of the stream\u2019s life that is so like his own;\nonce more he can see the rill leap down the hillside like a child, to\nwander playing among the flowers; or can follow it as, grown to a river,\nit rushes through a mountain gorge, henceforth in sluggish strength to\ncarry heavy burdens across the plain. In all that water does, the poet\u2019s\nfancy can discern its personality of life. It gives fish to the fisher,\nand crops to the husbandman; it swells in fury and lays waste the land;\nit grips the bather with chill and cramp, and holds with inexorable grasp\nits drowning victim:\u2014\n\n    \u201cTweed said to Till,\n      \u2018What gars ye tin sae still?\u2019\n    Till said to Tweed,\n      \u2018Though ye rin wi\u2019 speed,\n    And I rin slaw,\n      Yet, where ye drown ae man,\n    I drown twa.\u2019\u201d\n\nWhat ethnography has to teach of that great element of the religion\nof mankind, the worship of well and lake, brook and river, is simply\nthis that what is poetry to us was philosophy to early man; that to his\nmind water acted not by laws of force, but by life and will; that the\nwater-spirits of primeval mythology are as souls which cause the water\u2019s\nrush and rest, its kindness and its cruelty; that lastly man finds, in\nthe beings which with such power can work him weal and woe, deities with\na wider influence over his life, deities to be feared and loved, to be\nprayed to and praised and propitiated with sacrificial gifts.[46]\n\n\u201cIn Australia,\u201d continues Tylor, \u201cspecial water-demons infest pools and\nwatering places. In the native theory of disease and death, no personage\nis more prominent than the water-spirit, which afflicts those who go into\nunlawful pools or bathe at unlawful times, the creature which causes\nwomen to pine and die, and whose very presence is death to the beholder,\nsave to the native doctors, who may visit the water-spirit\u2019s subaqueous\nabode and return with bleared eyes and wet clothes to tell the wonders\nof their stay. It would seem that creatures with such attributes come\nnaturally into the category of spiritual beings, but in such stories as\nthat of the bunyip living in the lakes and rivers and seen floating as\nbig as a calf, which carries off native women to his retreat below the\nwaters, there appears that confusion between the spiritual water-demon\nand the material water-monster, which runs on into the midst of European\nmythology in such conceptions as that of the water-kelpie and the\nsea-serpent.\u201d\n\nThe same confusion of ideas is seen in the Macedonian ballad of the\nHaunted Well. Here too the spirit or demon of the well is confounded with\nthe water-serpent. The ballad, as quoted in Mr. Abbott\u2019s _Macedonian\nFolklore_, runs as follows:\u2014\n\nTHE HAUNTED WELL.\n\n    Four and five, nine brothers,\n    Eighteen cousins, lads of little luck:\n    A message came to them from the King, bidding them\n    To go forth and fight in the far-off land of the Franks:\n    \u201cThy blessing, mother, that we may go forth!\u201d\n    \u201cMay ye go forth nine brothers and come back eight;\n    May John the youngest never return!\u201d\n    They set forth, and as they crossed the vast plain,\n    They lived forty days without bread,\n    Forty-five more without water,\n    And then they found a dear little fount; but it was a spirit-haunted\n      well:\n    \u2019Twas thirty fathoms in depth; in breadth twenty.\n    \u201cHalt, dear brothers and let us cast lots,\n    He on whom the lot will fall, let him go in,\u201d\n    The lot falls on John, the youngest.\n    They bind John and let him down:\n    \u201cDraw, dear brothers, draw me out,\n    Here there is no water; but only a Spirit.\u201d\n    \u201cWe are drawing, John, we are drawing; but thou stirrest not.\u201d\n    \u201cThe serpent has wound itself round my body, the Spirit is holding me.\n    Come, set the Black One also to help you.\u201d\n    When the Black One heard, he neighed loud.\n    He reared on his haunches to draw him out.\n    When he drew out his arms, the mountains gleamed,\n    He draws out his sword also, and the sea gleamed.\n    They drew out John together with the spirit,\n    They lifted their knives to cut it asunder,\n    But instead of cutting the Spirit they cut the rope,\n    And John falls in together with the Spirit:\n    \u201cLeave me, brothers, leave me and go home,\n    Do not tell my dear mother that I am dead,\n    Tell her, brothers, that I am married,\n    That I have taken the tombstone for a mother-in-law, Black Earth\n      for a wife,\n    And the fine grass blades all for brothers and sisters-in-law.\u201d\n\nThe maleficent deities are also responsible for floods. When therefore,\nheavy floods threatened a village or a city in Gujarat, the king or\nthe headman used to go in procession to propitiate the river with\nflowers, cocoanuts, and other offerings, so that the floods should\nsubside. Similarly, in the Punjab, when a village is in danger of being\nflooded, the headman makes an offering of a cocoanut and a rupee to the\nflood-demon. The cocoanut represents the head of a human being and is\nbelieved to be acceptable to the water-demon in lieu of a human victim.\nThe headman stands in the water and holds the offering in his hand. When\nthe flood rises high enough to wash the offering from his hand, it is\nunderstood that the waters will abate. Some people throw seven handfuls\nof boiled wheat and sugar into the stream and distribute the remainder\namong the persons present. Some take a male buffalo, a horse, or a ram,\nand after boring the right ear of the victim, throw it into the water. If\nthe victim is a horse, it is saddled before it is offered.\n\nIn Bengal goats are sacrificed to propitiate the river-goddess in her\nmalignant form when she devastates the land with floods or engulfs the\nswimmers. The goats are often thrown alive into the water and are taken\nout by men of the boatman caste, who eat their flesh. Many ascetics\nperform a special penance in her honour, which consists in spending\nevery night in the month of January, when the cold is intense, seated\non a small platform erected over the river and engaged in such prayer\nand meditation as their sufferings from the cold will allow.[47] Crooke\nsays that when the town and temples at Hardwar were in imminent danger\nduring the Gohna flood, the Brahmans poured vessels of milk, rice and\nflowers into the waters of Mother Ganges and prayed to her to spare them.\nSimilarly, a story is related in the Folklore Notes of Gujarat of the\noccurrence of heavy floods in a village in the Jalalpur _taluka_, when\na certain lady placed an earthen vessel (ordinarily used for curdling\nmilk), containing _ghee_, afloat on the floods, whereupon the waters were\nat once seen to recede.\n\nA few years ago the river Musi overflowed and caused terrible\ndestruction. His Highness the Nizam thereupon went to the river, took\noff his turban, and threw it into the water in the hope that such\nsubmissiveness of a prince might appease the wrath of the river.[48]\n\n[Illustration: Ocean-Worship.]\n\n[Illustration: _Narali Purnima_ or Cocoanut Day.]\n\nThe calamity of floods should not, however, be exclusively attributed\nto sheer demoniacal influence of malignant spirits. It may, in some\ncases, be due to the offence given to patron saints of water. Curtiss\nrelates,[49] on the authority of Rev. J. Steward Crawford, an old\nresident in Syria, a remarkable incident which occurred at Nebk. The\ntown derives its water-supply from a series of wells connected with one\nanother. Once, owing to heavy rains, there came a succession of three\nfloods which washed away the wells which had been repaired after each\ncatastrophe. This left no room for doubt that the _Vali_ of the wells had\nbeen offended. They began to ascertain the reason and discovered that\nthe sacrifices which had been offered to the saint at an annual festival\nhad been intermitted, that people used to perform their ablutions in a\nportion of the stream which was inside of the courtyard of the _mukam_\n(shrine), thus defiling it, and that a dead body had been carried across\nthe stream. All this had angered the saint. Sacrifices were, therefore,\noffered to propitiate him. A number of sheep were stationed over the\nstream and their throats were cut so that the blood would run into the\nwater.\n\nIt is refreshing to turn from these river wraiths to the spirits of the\nsea, who are more powerful but less exacting. A cocoanut is enough to\nkeep them in good humour, and a special day is named for this offering,\ncalled _Narali Purnima_, or Cocoanut Holiday. On that day multitudes of\npeople flock to the sea-shore in Bombay to offer their _puja_ to the sea\nto keep it quiet after the monsoon. The Brahmin first offers prayers,\nthen the votary throws into the sea the holy water which the Brahmin\npours into the hollow of his hands, then some red lead, then a few\nflowers and some rice, and last of all the cocoanut. The safety of the\nseas during the fair season is thus insured.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nWHO WERE THE WATER DEMONS?\n\n\nWhence arose the fear of evil spirits? Who were those water demons? Both\nphilology and history confirm the view that the _Devas_ or demons of old\nwere in many cases either the conquered aborigines of the various lands\nin which the ancient Aryans settled themselves, or hostile races dwelling\nalong their frontiers. Out of this hostility of races coming in close\ncontact with one another sprang various superstitions. In some cases the\narmies of the aborigines were represented as accompanied by their own\nguardian spirits, who waged war upon the newcomers and who were therefore\nregarded as demoniacal. In other cases, the aborigines were themselves\ncredited with the power of exercising demon functions or assuming demon\nforms. Thus the people of Iran believed that the land of Turan was full\nof demons. This influence of the conquered people did not die out after\nthe struggle with them was over. Not only did the aborigines continue to\nbelieve in their own demoniacal powers and to observe their old rites and\ncustoms in the new r\u00e9gime, but they also spread the beliefs in many ways\namong their conquerors.\n\nAll untoward occurrences and unusual natural phenomena thus came to be\nattributed to the malignant action of those evil spirits. Storms, floods,\nfamines, disease and death all proceeded from the _Devas_, who in the\n_Yasna Haptanhaiti_ of the Zoroastrians are described as \u201cthe wicked,\nbad, wrongful originators of mischief, the most baneful, destructive and\nbasest of beings.\u201d Professor Robertson Smith relegates demonism to the\nposition of a cult hostile to and separate from the tribal beliefs of\nearly people and Mr. Walhouse points out[50] that these beliefs in demons\n\u201cbelong to the Turanian races and are antagonistic to the Aryan genius\nand feelings.\u201d\n\nNo doubt, Max M\u00fcller holds a different view. He considers that there\nis no difficulty in tracing a belief in evil, unclean and maleficent\nspirits, such as abound in Atharva-Veda, to the same soil which produced\na faith in good and beneficent spirits. \u201cWe need not go for them,\u201d says\nhe, \u201cto the original inhabitant of India or the Blacks of Australia. Some\nof the great Vedic gods like Rudra and the Maruts often assume a double\naspect. They are unkind as well as kind, they cause disease though they\nlikewise heal them. We have plenty of evil spirits in the Veda, such as\nVritras, Rakshasas, Y\u00e2mdh\u00e2nas, Pis\u00e2kas. Of course, nothing is easier\nthan to say that they were borrowed from the native races of India, but\nthis, which was formerly a very favourite expedient, would hardly commend\nitself now to any serious scholar, excepting always the cases where\nDravidian words can actually be discovered in Sanscrit.\u201d\n\nThese comments, however, merely contain a warning not to stretch\ntoo widely a partial explanation of the origin of evil spirits. The\nrace-origin of the lesser malignant spirits may not account for the\nexistence of the Vedic giants and demons. Neither has anyone attempted\nto do so. There is, however, no doubt that several of the myths of\n_bhuts_ and _d\u00e2kans_, giants and dwarfs, are connected with traditions\nof hostile races. Folklore throws considerable light on this question\nand a good deal of evidence has been brought forward by Grimm and other\nfolklorists. Tylor has endorsed this evidence and the influence of\nthe hostility of races on the beliefs of people in many lands is very\nskilfully examined by Sir Laurence Gomme in a chapter entitled the\n\u201cMythic influence of a conquered race\u201d in his _Ethnology of Folklore_,\nand also in a chapter on \u201cEthnological conditions\u201d in his later work,\n_Folklore as an Historical Science_. For our present purpose one or two\nexamples from Indian Folklore will suffice. On Bombay side, when a person\nis possessed, generally the evil spirit is of a low caste, a Mahar, or\nBhanghi or a Mochi or a Pinjari. The _d\u00e2kans_ (witches) who haunt our\nwayside wells and trees and cemeteries also belong to such low castes,\nas Kolis, Vaghris and Charans. The mountain ranges and jungle tracts of\nSouthern India are still inhabited by semi-savage tribes, who, there is\ngood reason to believe, once held the fertile open plains. As pointed out\nby Walhouse in the _Journal of the Anthropological Society_, the contempt\nand loathing in which they are ordinarily held, are curiously tinctured\nwith superstitious fear; for they are believed to possess secret powers\nof magic and witchcraft and influence with the old malignant deities of\nthe soil who can direct good or evil fortune. To this day the people of\nChota Nagpur believe that the Moondahs possess powers of sorcery and\ncan transform themselves into tigers and other beasts of prey with a\nview to devouring their enemies. Similarly, the Kathodis are believed\nto transform themselves into tigers. Many closely parallel beliefs\ncan be quoted from the history of demonism in the western world and\nSir Laurence Gomme points out that the general characteristics of the\nsuperstitions brought about by the contact between the Aryan conquerors\nof India and the non-Aryan aborigines are also represented in the cult of\nEuropean witchcraft. Underneath the emblems of the foreign civilisation\nlie the traditional custom and belief, \u201cthe attributes of the native\nuncivilisation.\u201d\n\nA notable illustration is given by Evans Wentz in _Fairy Faith in Celtic\nCountries_. The only true Cornish Fairy, says the author, is the Piksy,\nof the race which is the _Pohel Vean_ or Little People, and the Spriggan\nis only one of his aspects. The Piksy would seem to be the \u201cBrownie\u201d of\nthe Lowland Scot, the _Duine Sith_ of the Highlanders, and if we may\njudge from an interesting note in Scott\u2019s _Pirate_, the \u201cPeight\u201d of the\nOrkneys. If _Duine Sith_ really means \u201cthe Folk of the Mounds (burrows),\u201d\nnot the \u201cPeople of Peace,\u201d it is possible that there is something in\nthe theory that Brownie, _Duine Sith_, and \u201cPeight,\u201d which is Pict, are\nonly in their origin ways of expressing the little dark-complexioned\naboriginal folk who were supposed to inhabit the burrows, cromlechs, and\nall\u00e9es couvertes, and whose cunning, their only effective weapon against\nthe mere strength of the Aryan invader, earned them a reputation for\nmagical powers.[51]\n\nLet us now see how far this view of the case helps us in understanding\nthe Parsi beliefs in the Mahomedan guardian spirits of wells, to which\nreference has already been made. The relations of the Parsis with the\nHindus and Mahomedans in the land of their adoption were not exactly\nthose of conquered aborigines to the conquerors, but were, until the\nadvent of the English, practically the same as those of subject races to\nthe rulers. It was, however, no case of contact with a higher culture,\nrather it was the case of assimilation of a ruder culture. No doubt,\nthe Parsis had taken to India from their ancient home a belief in the\nexistence of a presiding genius of water. That, however, was a belief\nconsiderably different from that which in India gave the water-spirits\na local habitation and a name. But by long contact with the Hindus and\nMahomedans the community came to believe in several local deities and\nabsorbed several local rituals. No doubt, the primary factor in inducing\nthis recognition and worship of local deities was the fear of their power\nto do harm, but with it must also have been blended the desire to please\nthe neighbouring communities and the hope of receiving favours at the\nhands of the spirits if properly adored and propitiated.\n\nThis it was that seems to have led many a Parsi in the mofussil to offer\noil at the temple of _Hanuman_ or to take flowers to the shrines of\nMahomedan saints, whose aid they sought and who did not fail to appear\nto them, warning them and directing them, mostly in dreams. When they\nwent to Bombay they had already absorbed the Hindu ideas concerning the\nspirits lurking in or near deserted tanks and wells and regarded them\nas the haunts of evil spirits such as _d\u00e2kans_ and _sankhinis_, _bhuts_\nand _prets_. When, however, they dug wells in their own houses, in the\nabsence of any well-spirit in the Zoroastrian pantheon and in the absence\nof any Hindu guardian-spirits of household wells, they appear to have\ninvariably peopled their private wells with _sayyids_ and _pirs_ in\nwhose virtues they had already come to believe and whom they had already\nvenerated at their shrines and whom it was thus convenient for them to\nhonour in their own houses by giving them a _sthan_ or _thanak_ in their\nwells.\n\nThus we see that what was at first a purely Scriptural belief in the\nsanctity of water and its presiding genius is now a medley of many\ndivergent elements owing to the fusion of divers local traditions\nwith the fundamental tribal belief during the long intercourse of the\ncommunity with the Hindus and Mahomedans. There is no country in the\nworld where people live under more varied social and religious conditions\nand where they are more exposed to the influence of neighbours than in\nIndia and of all the cities of this cosmopolitan country there is none\nmore cosmopolitan than the city of Bombay.\n\nPossibly, if we carry on local research in the Bombay Presidency and\ntry to localise the beliefs and customs concerning well-worship, a good\ndeal of fresh light may be thrown on this question. The work is by no\nmeans very difficult and with the aid of European folklorists, who\nhave already shown us the way, it should be easy to carry on research\nthroughout India. Sir Laurence Gomme, for instance, has given us in a\nluminous chapter on the localisation of primitive beliefs, a very skilful\nanalysis of the different phases in which water-worship is still found in\nthe United Kingdom. All the survivals of this cult he has allocated and\nexplained by their ethnological bearing.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nANALYSIS OF THE BRITISH CULTS.\n\n\nCommencing with the Teutonic centres of England, Sir Laurence Gomme shows\nthat the middle and south-eastern counties almost fix the boundary of\none form of well-worship, a form which has lost all local colour, all\ndistinct ritual, and remains only in the dedication of the well or spring\nto a saint of the Christian Church, in the tradition of its name as a\n\u201choly well,\u201d or else in the memory of some sort of reverence formerly\npaid to the waters, which in many cases are nameless. Proceeding from\nsmall beginnings where the survival of the ancient cult is represented by\nthe simple idea of reverence for wells mostly dedicated to a Christian\nsaint, he takes us through stages where a ceremonial is faintly traced in\nthe well-dressing with garlands decked with flowers and ribbons, where\nshrubs and trees growing near the well are the recipients of offerings\nby devotees to the spirit of the well, where disease and sickness of\nall kinds are ministered to, where aid is sought against enemies, where\nthe gift of rain is obtained, where the spirits appear in general forms\nas fairies and in specific form as animal or fish, and finally, it\nmay be in anthropomorphic form as Christian saints, where priestesses\nattend the well to preside over the ceremonies. With the several\nvariants overlapping at every stage and thus keeping the whole group of\nsuperstition and custom in touch, one section with another, he shows that\nthere is every reason to identify this cult as the most widespread and\nthe most lasting in connection with local natural objects. He points out,\nmoreover, that it is in the Celtic-speaking districts where the rudest\nand most uncivilised ceremonial is extant, and further, that it is in the\ncountry of the Goidelic or earliest branch of the Celts, where this finds\nits most pronounced types.\n\nTo show how this may be translated into terms of ethnology he has given\nus the following table showing where the survivals of the cult are the\nmost perfect, that is to say, less touched by the incoming civilisations\nwhich have swept over them:\u2014\n\n  =============+========================+==============+==============+====\n               |  1 |  2 |  3 |  4 |  5 |  6 |  7 |  8 |  9 | 10 | 11 | 12\n  -------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----\n  England:     |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |\n               |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |\n  Eastern and  |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |\n  South-eastern|  + |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |  + |    |    |\n               |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |\n  Isle of Wight|  + |    |    |    |    |  + |    |    |  + |    |    |\n               |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |\n  Western      |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |\n   (middle)    |  + |    |    |    |    |  + |    |    |  + |    |    |\n               |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |\n  Western      |    |  + |  + |    |    |  + |  + |    |  + |    |    |\n               |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |\n  Northern (a) |    |  + |  + |    |    |  + |  + |    |  + |    |    |\n               |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |\n    Do.    (b) |    |  + |  + |    |    |    |  + |  + |    |  + |    |\n               |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |\n  Wales        |    |  + |  + |    |  + |    |  + |    |    |    |  + |  +\n               |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |\n  Cornwall     |    |  + |  + |    |  + |    |    |    |    |    |  + |  +\n               |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |\n  Ireland      |    |  + |  + |  + |  + |    |    |  + |    |    |  + |\n               |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |\n  Scotland     |    |  + |  + |  + |  + |    |    |  + |    |    |  + |  +\n  =============+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====\n\n  Form of worship.\n\n  1. Simple reverence.\n  2. Cure of disease.\n  3. Wishing and divination.\n  4. Rain producing.\n  5. Sun-worship influences.\n\n  Offerings.\n\n  6. Garland-dressing.\n  7. Pins.\n  8. Rag-bushes.\n\n  Deity or spirit.\n\n  9. Saint.\n  10. Fairy.\n  11. Animal genius.\n\n  12. Human priest or priestess.\n\nIt may be gathered from this table that the acts of simple reverence,\ngarland-dressing, and dedication to a Christian saint are to be taken\nas the late expressions in popular tradition of the earlier and more\nprimitive acts and practices tabulated above. Taking the more primitive\nelements as the basis, the author shows that the lowest point is obtained\nfrom English ground, which only rises into the primitive stages in\nthe northern counties where rag-bushes are found. On Welsh ground\nthe highest point of primitive culture is the tradition of an animal\nguardian-spirit. On Irish ground the highest point is the identification\nof the well deity with the rain-god, while on Scottish ground the highest\npoints recognisable elsewhere are accentuated in degree.\n\nThe author also shows that garland-dressing, pins and rag-bushes, the\nthree forms in which offerings to the well-deities are made, are but\nvariants of one primitive form\u2014namely, the offerings of rags or parts\nof clothing upon bushes sacred to the well. This species of offerings,\naccording to a summary given by General Pitt-Rivers, extends throughout\nNorthern Africa from west to east. Mungo Park mentions it in Western\nAfrica; Sir Samuel Baker speaks of it on the confines of Abyssinia, and\nsays that the people who practised it were unable to assign a reason\nfor doing so; Burton also found the same custom in Arabia during his\npilgrimage to Mecca; in Persia Sir William Ouseley saw a tree close to a\nlarge monolith covered with these rags, and he describes it as a practice\nappertaining to a religion long since proscribed in that country; Colonel\nLeslie says that in the Dekkan and Ceylon the trees in the neighbourhood\nof wells may be seen covered with similar scraps of cotton; Dr. A.\nCampbell speaks of it as being practised by the Limboos near Darjeeling\nin the Himalayas, where it is associated, as in Ireland, with large heaps\nof stones; and Huc in his travels mentions it among the Tartars. We shall\nexamine the ideas underlying the practice of rag-offering in different\ncountries in a separate chapter. Meanwhile, the conclusion that Sir\nLaurence Gomme draws from this summary may be noted in his own words:\u2014\n\n\u201cHere not only do we get evidence of the cult in an Aryan country like\nPersia being proscribed, but, as General Pitt-Rivers observes, \u2018it is\nimpossible to believe that so singular a custom as this, invariably\nassociated with cairns, megalithic monuments, holy wells, or some such\nearly Pagan institutions, could have arisen independently in all these\ncountries.\u2019 That the area over which it is found is coterminous with\nthe area of the megalithic monuments, that these monuments take us back\nto pre-Aryan people and suggest the spread of this people over the area\ncovered by their remains, are arguments in favour of a megalithic date\nfor well-worship and rag-offerings.\u201d\n\nThis ramble of ours through many ages and many lands in search of\nevidence of water-worship may now be brought to a close. Let us now\nwitness the ceremonies connected with the digging of wells and the\ndifferent customs of decorating wells and the varied offerings proffered\nto the nymphs and spirits residing in the waters. With the picture that\nwill be thus presented of Indian wells decked with _jalis_ (trellis work)\nof flowers and illumined with _ghee_-lamps, their pavements strewn with\ncocoanuts, sugar and sweets and milk and _ghee_, and smeared with red\nlead in lieu of blood, but daubed also in some places with the blood\nof animal-sacrifice, it will be interesting to contrast the picture\nof English wells fantastically tapestried about with old rags and\npractically unlit and unembellished, save for a little garland-dressing\nhere and there, and filled with pins and needles, buttons and coins.\n\n\n\n\nPART III.\n\nVARIED RITUALS AND OFFERINGS.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nWATER-DIVINING AND WELL-OPENING CEREMONIES.\n\n\n    \u201cSpring up, O well,\n    Sing ye to it:\n    Thou well dug by princes,\n    Sunk by the nobles of the people,\n    With the sceptre, with their staves\n    Out of the desert a gift.\u201d\n\nThis beautiful song of the well is taken from the Jewish scriptures.\nBudde believes that the song alludes to a custom by which when a well or\nspring was found, it was lightly covered over, and then opened by the\nSheikhs in the presence of the clan and to the accompaniment of a song.\nIn this way, by the fiction of having dug it, the well was regarded as\nthe property of the clan. He thinks that a passage in Nilus (Migne,\n\u201cPatrologia Graeca\u201d), to which Goldziber has called attention, confirms\nthis view. Nilus says that when the nomadic Arabs found a well they\ndanced by it and sang songs to it. According to Kazivini when the water\nof the wells of Ilabistan failed, a feast was held at the source, with\nmusic and dancing, to induce it to flow again.\n\nIn India when a well is to be dug, an expert is first called to select a\nfavourable site. To some experts such sites are revealed in dreams. Some\npossess the faculty of hearing the sound of water running underneath,\nothers point out the sites by smelling out sweet water underground.\nThe _Bombay Gazetteer_ bears testimony to the wonderful faculties of\nthese experts. \u201cSites for wells,\u201d says the writer,[52] \u201care chosen with\ngreat success by water-diviners, or _p\u00e1nikals_, whose services can be\nengaged at the rate of Re. 1-4 a well. Their judgment is unerring and\nmany instances are on record of their practical ability. They can also\ngenerally tell at what depth the spring will be tapped.\u201d\n\nThe sniffers are known as Bhonyesunghna in Gujarat and Cutch, and as\nSunga in the Punjab, and they generally belong to a class of _Faqirs_\ngifted with this faculty. The Luniyas, a caste of navvies, are also\nendowed with these powers. In the Punjab a herd of goats is driven about\nin search of sites of deserted wells. When these goats arrive at the\nright spot, they lie down and that is a signal for a search.\n\nWater-diviners are not unknown in the West. One of the extraordinary\nincidents of the recent Gallipoli campaign was the discovery of water\nby a Kentish water-diviner at Suvla Bay. During the critical hours\nwhich followed the landing at the place in August 1915, the great\nproblem for the officers was to find water on that parched land. The\nexperts had examined the district and reported that there was no water\nto be got there, but Sapper Stephen Kelly, of the 3rd Australian Light\nHorse Brigade, a hydraulic engineer of Melbourne, possessed the gift\nfor water-divining. While he was standing with Captain Shearen, a New\nZealand Officer, in the line of communications, he cried out, \u201cThere\u2019s\nwater here where we\u2019re standing.\u201d News of his reputation had reached\nBrigadier-General Hughes, who sent for him immediately and asked him\nif he could find water. The Sapper was confident of finding it. The\nBrigadier gave him a sporting chance and put a thousand men under his\ndirection. Within a few hours he opened up a well which had been sunk.\nIn a little more time he had thirty wells going with sufficient water to\nsupply every man with a gallon a day and every mule with its six gallons,\nand this of pure cold spring water \u201cinstead of the lukewarm liquor from\nkerosene tins off the transport.\u201d\n\nThe army\u2019s engineers were astonished by Sapper Kelly\u2019s success,\nespecially as he was without paper plans. When they asked him about it,\nhe replied that it would take him about half the time to get the wells\ngoing that it would to draw up the plans. Sapper Kelly was a Kent man,\nborn in Maidstone. He went out to Queensland when a small boy. At that\ntime an old water-diviner arrived in the neighbourhood and tried his art\nin that locality. The boy trotted after the old man in his twistings and\nturnings about the paddock with a divining twig in his hand and when the\nold man found water, the boy \u201cfelt his nerves twitch and a thrill go\nthrough him that wasn\u2019t just excitement.\u201d He thought he would try too,\nand he did. From that moment he had practised his powers. At Suvla, he\nsaid, he got better results with a copper rod instead of the divining\ntwig.\n\nWe are not aware of any ceremonies connected with the digging of wells\nin the West, but in India it is regarded as a very important function\nrequiring care and caution and, above all, propitiation of the deities.\nA Brahmin is consulted as to the auspicious hour when the work of\ndigging should commence. The auspicious days vary in different places.\nIn Gujarat, Tuesdays and the days on which the earth sleeps are avoided;\nand the earth is supposed to be asleep on the 1st, the 7th, the 9th, the\n10th, the 14th and the 24th days following a _Sankranti_, _i.e._, the\nday on which the sun crosses from one constellation to another. With\nthe exception of these days, a date is generally selected on which the\n_chandra-graha_, or the moon, is favourable to the constructor of the\nwell.\n\nOn the appointed day, the water diviner, the constructor of the well,\nthe Brahmin priest, and the labourers go to the place where the well\nis to be dug, and an image of the god _Ganpati_, the protector of all\nauspicious ceremonies, is first installed on the spot and worshipped with\n_panchamrit_, a punch or mixture of milk, curds, ghee, honey and sugar.\nA green-coloured piece of _atlas_ (silk cloth), about two feet long, is\nthen spread on the spot, and a pound and a quarter of wheat, a cocoanut,\nbetels, dates and copper coins are placed on it. A copper bowl filled\nwith water and containing some silver or gold coins is also placed there.\nThe mouth of the bowl is covered with the leaves of the mango tree and a\ncocoanut is placed over the leaves. After this the priest chants sacred\nhymns and asks his host to perform the _Khat_ ceremonies.\n\nThese Khat-muhurt or Khat-puja must be performed before commencing the\nconstruction not only of wells, reservoirs and tanks, but also of all\nworks above or under the ground, such as setting the _nankestambha_,\nor the first pillar of a marriage bower, or a bower for a thread\nceremony, or laying the foundation-stone of a house or temple, or a\nsacrificial pit, or of a street, or fortress, or a city or a village.\nThe earth-mother is then worshipped in the manner prescribed in the\n_shashtras_ to propitiate her against interruptions in the completion of\nthe work undertaken. The owner or the person interested in the new work\npours a little water on the earth where the foundation-pit is to be dug,\nsprinkles red lead and _gulal_ (red powder), places a betel-nut and a\nfew precious coins, and digs out the first clod of earth himself. Rich\npersons use silver or golden spades and hoes when turning up the first\nclod. Among the usual offerings to _Ganpati_ and to the earth on the\noccasion are curd, milk, honey, molasses, cocoanuts, dhana (a kind of\nspices), leaves of nagarval (a kind of creeper) and red lead. The expert\nwho is called to choose a proper site for the well offers frankincense\nand a cocoanut to the spot, and lights a lamp thereon. After the _Khat_\nceremonies are over, the host distributes sugar or molasses among those\npresent and offers money to the expert who generally refuses to accept\nit and asks the host to dispose of it in charity. Even those who accept\nmoney give away a part of it in alms to the poor.\n\nOccasionally, with a view to securing unobstructed completion of the\nwork, the god _Ganpati_ and the goddess _Jaladevi_ are installed and\nworshipped daily, until water appears in the well. Some people, however,\ninstall the goddess _Jaladevi_ after the appearance of water, when a\nstone is taken out from the bottom of the well and is plastered with\nred lead to represent the goddess and is ceremoniously worshipped. When\nthe construction of the well is complete, a ceremony called _Vastu_ or\n_jalostsana_ or water-festival is celebrated, Brahmins are entertained at\na feast and _dakshina_ is given.[53]\n\nIn the Punjab, the work of digging a well should begin on Sunday. On\nthe previous Saturday night little bowls of water are placed round the\nproposed site, and the one which dries up the least marks the best site\nfor the well. The circumference is then marked and the work of digging\ncommenced, the central lump of earth being left intact. This clod of\nearth is cut out last and it is called _Khwajaji_, after Khwaja Khizr,\nthe water-saint, and is worshipped. If it breaks, it is a bad omen, and a\nnew site is selected a week later.\n\nIn the north-east a Pandit fixes the auspicious moment for sinking\na well. The owner then worships Gauri, Ganesha, Shesha Naga, the\nworld-serpent, the earth, the spade and the nine planets. Then facing in\nthe direction in which, according to the directions of the Pandit, Shesha\nNaga is supposed to be lying at the time, he cuts five clods with the\nspade. When the workmen reach the point at which the wooden well-cush has\nto be fixed, the owner smears the cush in five places with red powder\nand tying dub-grass and a sacred thread to it, lowers it into its place.\nA fire sacrifice is then offered, and Brahmins are fed. When the well\nis ready, cow-dung, cow urine, milk, butter and Ganges water, leaves of\nsacred Tulsi and honey are thrown into the water before it is used. In\nthe Konkan a golden cow is thrown into a newly built well as an offering\nto the water deities.[54]\n\nBut, according to Crookes, no well is considered lucky until the\nSalagrama, or the spiral ammonite sacred to Vishnu, is solemnly wedded to\nthe Tulsi or basil plant, representing the garden or field which the well\nis intended to water. The rite is performed according to the standard\nmarriage formula: the relations are assembled; the owner of the garden\nrepresents the bridegroom, while a kinsman or his wife stands for the\nbride. Gifts are given to Brahmins, a feast is held in the garden, and\nboth the garden and the well may then be used without any danger.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nDECORATIONS AND OFFERINGS.\n\n\nWe have seen that the Indian method of venerating a well was to crown\nit with flowers, to cover it with _jalis_ or trellis work of flowers,\nto illumine it with ghee-lamps placed in niches specially made for the\npurpose and to strew the pavement with cocoanuts, betel-nuts, sugar and\nsweets and milk and ghee and to smear it with red lead. We have also\nnoticed that floral decoration and garland-dressing is an act of simple\nreverence, being a survival of the earlier and more primitive practices\nand ceremonials. The other offerings, however, particularly cocoanut,\nand the practice of smearing the pavement with red lead point to beliefs\nassociating spirits with water, and these are survivals of the ancient\ncult of human and animal sacrifices offered to the water-spirit. The\ncocoanut, resembling a human head, is accepted by the spirits, in lieu\nof a human being, similarly red lead does duty for the blood of animal\nvictims. The Germans hoodwink the water-spirit with another curious\nsubstitute and that is a loaf of bread. It is the practice to throw a\nloaf into the water at Rotenburg on the Neckar. If this offering is not\ngiven, the river-spirit would take away a man. The practice of placing\nlamps inside the well also points to spirit-beliefs. The lights, it is\nhoped, would scare away evil spirits from the water.\n\nThere is enough anthropological evidence to show that at one time human\nsacrifices were offered in east and west alike to the spirits of fire,\nearth and water. Numerous authorities may be cited. The Indian practices\nare well known. For continental examples we may select only one from Sir\nJames Frazer\u2019s _Golden Bough_ concerning the practice of burning humans\nbeings in the fires. The most unequivocal traces of human sacrifices\noffered on these occasions are those which, about a hundred years ago,\nstill lingered at the Beltane fires in the Highlands of Scotland, that\nis, among a Celtic people who, situated in a remote corner of Europe\nand almost completely isolated from foreign influence, had till then\nconserved their old heathenism better than any other people in the west\nof Europe. \u201cIt is significant,\u201d says Sir James Frazer, \u201cthat human\nsacrifices by fire are known, on unquestionable evidence, to have been\nsystematically practised by the Celts. The earliest description of these\nsacrifices has been bequeathed to us by Julius C\u00e6sar. As conqueror of\nthe hitherto independent Celts of Gaul, C\u00e6sar had ample opportunity of\nobserving the national Celtic religion and manners, while these were\nstill fresh and crisp from the native mint and had not yet been fused in\nthe melting-pot of Roman civilization.... The following seem to have been\nthe main outlines of the custom. Condemned criminals were reserved by the\nCelts in order to be sacrificed to the gods at a great festival which\ntook place once in every five years. The more there were of such victims,\nthe greater was believed to be the fertility of the land. If there were\nnot enough criminals to furnish victims, captives taken in war were\nimmolated to supply the deficiency. When the time came, the victims were\nsacrificed by the Druids or priests, some they shot down with arrows,\nsome they impaled, and some they burned alive in the following manner.\nColossal images of wicker-work or of wood and grass were constructed;\nthese were filled with live men, cattle and animals of other kinds; fire\nwas then applied to the images, and they were burned with their living\ncontents. Such were the great festivals held once every five years. But\nbesides these quinquennial festivals, celebrated on so grand a scale\nand with, apparently, so large an expenditure of human life, it seems\nreasonable to suppose that festivals of the same sort, only on a lesser\nscale, were held annually, and that from these annual festivals are\nlineally descended some at least of the fire-festivals which, with their\ntraces of human sacrifices, are still celebrated year by year in many\nparts of Europe.\u201d\n\nSimilarly, in pagan Europe water claimed its human victims on Midsummer\nDay. We have already seen that in England the spirits of the River Tees,\nthe Skerne and the Ribble, the Spey and the Dee demand human victims. We\nhave also seen how the river sprites in Germany transcend the rest of the\nspirits in Europe in their blood-thirstiness. We also learn from Tacitus\nthat the ancient Germans offered human sacrifices. He tells us that the\nimage of the goddess Nerthus, her vestments and chariot were washed in a\ncertain lake, and that immediately afterwards the slaves who ministered\nto the goddess were swallowed by the lake. The statement may perhaps be\nunderstood to mean that the slaves were drowned as a sacrifice to the\ndeity.\n\nThe next stage was that of animal sacrifices. It is well known that just\nas goats and buffaloes were sacrificed in India, so were bulls and calves\noffered to the deities in Europe. In Bombay cocks and goats are still\noffered to water. The wells on the continent, however, seldom receive\nanimal offerings in these days. Only in one case, namely in the case\nof St. Tegla\u2019s Well, which is resorted to for the cure of epilepsy, we\nfind the patient offering a cock or a hen. The usual offerings at other\nwells are rags and ribbons, pins and needles, nails and shells, buttons\nand coins, and sometimes bread and cheese. It will, therefore, be news\nto many that in Great Britain the lamb was the votive offering for\nwater. Sir Laurence Gomme refers to this offering in a chapter on ethnic\nelements in custom and ritual, in which he compares certain ceremonies\nprevalent in India and Greece and other parts of Europe and argues from\nthe strong line of parallel between the Indian ceremonies and those\nstill observed in Europe as survivals of a forgotten and unrecognised\ncult that ceremonies which are demonstrably non-Aryan in India, even in\nthe presence of Aryan people, must in original have been non-Aryan in\nEurope, though the race from whom they have descended is not at present\nidentified by ethnologists. One of the customs selected by him for\ncomparison is the Whitsuntide custom in the parish of King\u2019s Teignton,\nDevonshire. Here is a description of that custom:\u2014\n\n\u201cA lamb is drawn about the parish on Whitsun Monday in a cart covered\nwith garlands of lilac, laburnum, and other flowers, when persons are\nrequested to give something towards the animal and attendant expenses; on\nTuesday it is then killed and roasted whole in the middle of the village.\nThe lamb is then sold in slices to the poor at a cheap rate.\u201d\n\nThe origin of the custom is forgotten, but a tradition, supposed to trace\nback to heathen days, is to this effect: The village suffered from a\ndearth of water, when the inhabitants were advised by their priests to\npray to the gods for water; whereupon the water sprang up spontaneously\nin a meadow about a third of a mile above the river, in an estate now\ncalled Rydon, amply sufficient to supply the wants of the place, and\nat present adequate, even in a dry summer, to work three mills. A\nlamb, it is said, has ever since that time been sacrificed as a votive\nthank-offering at Whitsuntide in the manner above mentioned.\n\nThe same ceremony, in a more primitive form, was observed at the village\nof Holne. On May-morning, before daybreak, the young men of the village\nused to assemble at a granite pillar in the centre of a field called the\nPloy Field. They then proceeded to the moor, where they selected a ram\nlamb, and after running it down brought it in triumph to the Ploy Field,\nfastened it to the pillar, cut its throat, and then roasted it whole,\nskin, wool, etc. At Midday a struggle took place, at the risk of cut\nhands, for a slice, it being supposed to confer luck for the ensuing year\non the fortunate devourer. As an act of gallantry the young men sometimes\nfought their way through the crowd to get a slice for the chosen amongst\nthe young women, all of whom, in their best dresses, attended the Ram\nFeast as it was called.\n\nIn one of his odes Horace made a solemn promise that he would make a\npresent of a very fine kid, some sweet wine and flowers to a noble\nfountain in his own Sabine Villa. We have seen that even to-day the\nParsis offer goats and fowl to the spirits of the well. The process of\nreasoning is the same. The Gujarati Hindu, however, shrinks from such\nslaughter. Nevertheless, the gods have to be propitiated. He therefore\noffers acceptable substitutes for animal victims, such as cocoanuts and\nred lead. Betelnuts, sugar and milk and ghee likewise keep the spirits in\ngood humour.\n\nOfferings of coins to the well-spirits are common in the East as in the\nWest. What can be the explanation? Is the coin offered as a price for the\nboon that one expects to derive from the healing powers of the wells?\nThat at any rate is the idea prompting the man bitten by a rabid dog when\nhe goes to a well inhabited by a V\u00e2chharo, with two earthen cups filled\nwith milk and with a pice in each, which he empties into the water. But\nquite a different and curious explanation of the offering is found in\nthe _Folklore Notes of Gujarat_. \u201cIt is a belief among Hindus,\u201d says\none of the informants of the late Mr. Jackson, \u201cthat to give alms in\nsecret confers a great boon on the donor. Some of the orthodox people,\ntherefore, throw pice into wells, considering it to be a kind of secret\ncharity.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\nRAG WELLS AND PIN WELLS.\n\n\nThe most singular feature of well-worship in Europe is the fantastic\ncustom of offering rags at sacred wells, also pins and buttons, rusty\nnails and needles, and even shells and pebbles. Rag wells and pin wells\nabound in Great Britain and Ireland. Many references to these are found\nin the works of European folklorists. Sir Laurence Gomme has skilfully\ndistributed them geographically and we may adopt his analysis.[55] In\nthe middle and southern countries of England these practices have not\nsurvived, but in northern England one comes across several pin-wells.\nAt Sefton in Lancashire it was customary for passers-by to drop into\nSt. Helen\u2019s well a new pin for good luck or to secure the fulfilment\nof an expressed wish and by the turning of the pin-point to the north\nor to any other point of the compass conclusions were drawn as to the\nfidelity of lovers, date of marriage and other love matters. At Brindle\nis a well dedicated to St. Ellin, where on Patron day pins are thrown\ninto the water. Such pin-wells also existed at Jarrow and Wooler in\nNorthumberland, at Breyton Minchmore, Koyingham, and Mount Grace in\nYorkshire.\n\nAt Great Cotes and Winterton in Lincolnshire, Newcastle and Benton in\nNorthumberland, Newton Kyme, Thorp Arch, and Gargrave in Yorkshire,\npieces of rag, cloth, or ribbon take the place of the pins, and are\ntied to bushes adjoining the wells, while near Newton, at the foot of\nRoseberry Topping, the shirt or shift of the devotee was thrown into the\nwell, and according as it floated or sank so would the sickness leave or\nbe fatal, while as an offering to the saint a rag of the shirt is torn\noff and left hanging on the briars thereabouts.\n\nPin wells in Wales are met with at Rhosgoch in Montgomeryshire, St.\nCynhafal\u2019s Well in Denbighshire, St. Barruc\u2019s Well on Barry Island, near\nCardiff, Ffynon Gwynwy spring in Carnarvonshire, and a well near Penrhos.\nReference has already been made to the cursing well of St. Aelian. Anyone\nwho wished to inflict a curse upon an enemy resorted to the priestess of\nthe well and got the name of the person proposed to be cursed registered\nin a book kept for the purpose. A pin was then dropped into the well\nin the name of the victim, and the curse was complete. Pin-wells and\nrag-wells are both represented in Cornwall as, for instance, at Pelynt,\nSt. Austel and St. Roche, where pins are offered, and at Madron Well,\nwhere both pins and rags are offered.\n\nIn Ireland the offering of rags is a universal custom. Among examples of\nrag-wells may be mentioned Ardclinis, County Antrim; Errigall-Keroge,\nCounty Tyrone; Dungiven, St. Bartholomew\u2019s Well at Pilltown, County\nWaterford; and St. Brigid\u2019s Well at Cliffony, County Sligo.\n\nAbout fifty years after the Reformation it was noted that the wells of\nScotland were all \u201ctapestried about with old rags.\u201d The best examples\nlasting to within modern times are to be found in the islands round the\ncoast and in the northern shires, particularly in Banff, Aberdeen, Perth,\nRoss, and Caithness. At Kilmuir, in the Isle of Skye, at Loch Hiant, or\nSiant, there was \u201ca shelf made in the wall of a contiguous enclosure\u201d for\nplacing thereon \u201cthe offerings of small rags, pins, and coloured threads\nto the divinity of the place.\u201d At St. Mourie\u2019s Well, on Malruba Isle, a\nrag was left on the bushes, nails stuck into an oak tree, or sometimes\na copper coin driven in. At Toubirmore Well, in Gigha Isle, devotees\nwere accustomed to leave \u201ca piece of money, a needle, pin, or one of the\nprettiest variegated stones they could find,\u201d and at Tonbir Well, in\nJura, they left \u201can offering of some small token, such as a pin, needle,\nfarthing or the like.\u201d\n\nIn Banffshire, at Montblairie, \u201cmany still alive remember to have seen\nthe impending boughs adorned with rags of linen and woollen garments,\nand the well enriched with farthings and bodles, the offerings of\nthose who came from afar to the fountain.\u201d At Keith the well is near\na stone circle, and some offering was always left by the devotees. In\nAberdeenshire, at Frazerburgh, \u201cthe superstitious practice of leaving\nsome small trifle\u201d existed. In Perthshire at St. Fillan\u2019s Well, Comrie,\nthe patients leave behind \u201csome rags of linen or woollen cloth.\u201d In\nCaithness, at Dunnat, they throw a piece of money into the water, and\nat Wick they leave a piece of bread and cheese and a silver coin, which\nthey alleged disappeared in some mysterious way. In Ross and Cromarty, at\nAlness, \u201cpieces of coloured cloth were left as offerings\u201d; at Cragnick an\noffering of a rag was suspended from a bramble bush overhanging the well;\nat Fodderty the devotees \u201calways left on a neighbouring bush or tree\na bit of coloured cloth or thread as a relic\u201d; and at Kiltearn shreds\nof clothing were hung on the surrounding trees. In Sutherlandshire, at\nFarr and at Loth, a coin was thrown into the well. In Dumfriesshire, at\nPenpont, a part of the dress was left as an offering, and many pieces\nhave been seen \u201cfloating on the lake or scattered round the banks.\u201d In\nKirkcudbrightshire at Buittle, \u201ceither money or clothes\u201d was left, and\nin Renfrewshire, at Houston, \u201cpieces of cloth were left as a present or\noffering to the saint on the bushes.\u201d\n\nMacaulay in his History of St. Kilda, speaking of a consecrated well in\nthat island called Tobirnimbuadh, or the spring of divers virtues, says:\n\u201cNear the fountain stood an altar, on which the distressed votaries\nlaid down their oblations. Before they could touch sacred water with\nany prospect of success, it was their constant practice to address the\nGenius of the place with supplication and prayers. No one approached him\nwith empty hands. But the devotees were abundantly frugal. The offerings\npresented by them were the poorest acknowledgments that could be made to\na superior being, from whom they had either hopes or fears, shells and\npebbles, rags of linen or stuffs worn out, pins, needles, or rusty nails,\nwere generally all the tribute that was paid; and sometimes, though\nrarely enough, copper coins of the smallest value.\u201d[56]\n\nWhat may be the ideas underlying these singular gifts?\n\nHenderson explains in _Folklore_ that \u201cthe country girls imagine that the\nwell is in charge of a fairy or spirit who must be propitiated by some\noffering, and the pin presents itself as the most ready or convenient,\nbesides having a special suitableness as being made of metal.\u201d Miss\nMarian Cox in her _Introduction to Folklore_ says that the pins, coins,\nbuttons and other objects found in wells, and generally considered to be\nofferings, may formerly have been vehicles of the diseases which patients\nhave thought thus to throw off. This suggestion is probably based on\nthe theory put forward by Sir John Rhys in regard to the rag-offerings\nat sacred wells. He believed that the object of placing these scraps of\nclothing at the wells was for transferring the disease from the sick\nperson to some one else. The same explanation is vouchsafed in regard to\nthe Indian custom of hoisting flags on trees. But whether or not this\nexplanation is partially true in regard to the rag offerings, it is\nevidently untenable in regard to the presents of pins and buttons which\nare unquestionably offerings intended to please the well spirits.\n\nIn combating the opinion of Sir John Rhys, Sir Laurence Gomme gives in\n_Folklore as an Historical Science_ a very significant example. \u201cAmong\nother items,\u201d says he, \u201cI have come across an account of an Irish\nstation, as it is called, at a sacred well, the details of which fully\nbear out my view as to the nature of the rags deposited at the shrine\nbeing offerings to the local deity. One of the devotees, in true Irish\nfashion, made his offering accompanied by the following words:\u2014\u2018To St.\nColumbkill\u2014I offer up this button, a bit o\u2019 the waistband o\u2019 my own\nbreeches, an\u2019 a taste o\u2019 my wife\u2019s petticoat, in remimbrance of us havin\u2019\nmade this holy station; an\u2019 may they rise up in glory to prove it for us\nin the last day.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cI shall not attempt,\u201d says the author, \u201cto account for the presence of\nthe usual Irish humour in this, to the devotee, most solemn offering; but\nI point out the undoubted nature of the offerings and their service in\nthe identification of their owners\u2014a service which implies their power to\nbear witness in spirit-land to the pilgrimage of those who deposited them\nduring lifetime at the sacred well.\u201d Mr. Eden Phillpots in one of his\nCornish stories, _Lying Prophets_, confirms this view. In that story rags\nare offered. \u201cJust a rag tored off a petticoat or some such thing. They\nhanged \u2019em up round about on the thorn bushes, to show as they\u2019d a\u2019done\nmore for the good saint if they\u2019d had the power.\u201d\n\nA few more authorities may be cited. These have been referred to in\nKnowlson\u2019s _Origins of Popular Superstitions and Customs_. Grose explains\nthe custom in the following extract:\u2014\n\n    \u201cBetween the towns of Alten and Newton, near the foot of the\n    Rosberrye Toppinge, there is a well dedicated to St. Oswald.\n    The neighbours have an opinion that a shirt or shift, taken off\n    a sick person and thrown into that well, will show whether the\n    person will recover or die; for if it floated, it denoted the\n    recovery of the party; if it sunk, there remained no hope of\n    their life; and to reward the saint for his intelligence, _they\n    tear off a rag of the shirt, and leave it hanging on the briers\n    thereabouts_ where, \u2018I have seen such numbers as might have\n    made a fayre rheme in a paper-myll\u2019.\u201d\n\nThere is an echo of this theory in the _Statistical Account of Scotland_:\n\u201cA spring in the Moss of Melshach, of the chalybeats kind, is still in\nreputation among the common people. Its sanative qualities extend even\nto brutes. As this spring probably obtained vogue at first in days of\nignorance and superstition, it would appear that it became customary\nto leave at the well _part of the clothes of the sick and diseased_\nand harness of the cattle as an offering of gratitude to the divinity\nwho bestowed healing virtues on its waters. And now, even though the\nsuperstitious principle no longer exists, the accustomed offerings are\nstill presented.\u201d\n\nHere is one more extract from the Statistical Account of Scotland:\u2014\n\n    \u201cThere is at Balmano a fine spring well, called St. John\u2019s\n    Well, which in ancient times was held in great estimation.\n    Numbers, who thought its waters of a sanative quality, brought\n    their rickety children to be washed in its stream. Its water\n    was likewise thought a sovereign remedy for sore eyes, which,\n    by frequent washing, was supposed to cure them. To show their\n    gratitude to the saint, and that he might be propitious to\n    continue the virtues of the waters, they put into the well\n    presents, not indeed of any great value, or such as would\n    have been of the least service to him if he had stood in need\n    of money, but such as they conceived the good and merciful\n    apostle, who did not delight in costly oblations, could not\n    fail to accept. The presents generally given were pins,\n    needles, and rags taken from their clothes.\u201d\n\nProfessor Rhys himself suggests that a distinction is to be drawn between\nthe rags hung on trees or near a well and the pins, which are so commonly\nthrown into the water itself. In his opinion only the rags were meant to\nbe vehicles of disease. \u201cIf this opinion were correct\u201d, says Hartland,\n\u201cone would expect to find both ceremonies performed by the same patient\nat the same well; he would throw in the pin and also place the rag on\nthe bush, or wherever its proper place might be. The performance of both\nceremonies, is, however, I think, exceptional. Where the pin or button\nis dropped into the well, the patient does not trouble about the rag,\nand _vice versa_.\u201d Hartland is therefore inclined to think that the rags\nstand for entire articles of clothing which used to be deposited at an\nearlier time and he thinks that on the analogy of the part representing\nthe whole the rags were intended to connect the worshipper with the\ndeity. The reasoning underlying the rag-offerings, then, resolves itself\ninto the following simple syllogism: My shirt or stocking, or a rag to\nrepresent it, stands for me; being placed upon a sacred bush or thrust\ninto a sacred well it is in constant contact with divinity; the effluence\nof divinity, reaching and involving it therefore reaches and involves me.\n\nA curious detail in regard to these rag-offerings is given by Mrs. Evans\nin reference to the rags tied on the bushes at St. Elian\u2019s well. These\nrags must be tied with wool. This detail is not mentioned by the various\nauthorities whom we have referred to, and the reason for using wool\nremains to be explained. We know that with the Hindus as well as with\nthe Parsis the sheep is a sacred animal. The use of woollen clothes is\nprescribed in certain Hindu rituals and the sacred thread of the Parsis,\nwhich he carries round his waist day and night, is made of sheep\u2019s wool.\nProbably the same idea led to the use of wool in the English custom\nof hanging up rags. If so, it affords a further ground for concluding\nthat the rag was not a mere vehicle of disease but a grateful offering\ndevoutly presented to the deity of the well or the tree.\n\nMacedonian folklore furnishes further evidence in this behalf. Travellers\nin Macedonia often see newly-built fountains decorated with cotton or\nwool threads of many colours. These threads are torn by wayfarers from\ntheir dress on beholding the fountain for the first time. \u201cThey alight\nand after having slaked their thirst in the waters of the fountain, leave\nthese offerings as tokens of gratitude to the presiding nymph.\u201d[57]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\nA MISUNDERSTOOD INDIAN CUSTOM.\n\n\nIn India no one would think of offering to the water-spirits such impure\narticles as pins and needles and nails, much less \u201crags tored off shirts\nand petticoats.\u201d It would be positive defilement of water. Sometimes,\nhowever, flags are seen hoisted near holy wells, and European travellers\nrepresent them as rag wells corresponding to those with which they are\nfamiliar in the west. There is, however, a good deal of difference\nbetween the two customs. In the first place these flags are not rags.\nThey are made of new, unused cloth. It is a universal custom in India to\nput up _dhajas_ or standards near shrines, sepulchres and sacred trees\nbelieved to harbour spirits. When there is such a shrine or tree near a\nwell, a flag is hoisted at the spot. But it is done in honour, not of the\nwater-spirit, but of the god or goddess installed in the shrine or of\nthe spirit dwelling in the tree or of the saint buried in the vicinity.\nI have made personal enquiries and consulted authorities in search of\nevidence for rag wells in India, but have not come across any single\ninstance. True, Crooke in his _Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern\nIndia_, makes the rather sweeping assertion that India supplies numerous\nexamples of the custom of hanging up rags on trees or near sacred wells.\nMention is also made in the _Folklore Notes of Gujarat_ of flags that\nare sometimes hoisted near holy wells \u201cin honour of the water-goddess\nJaldevki.\u201d European folklorists are thereby led to docket these as\nillustrations of the prevalence of the cult of rag wells in India. But\nthere is no evidence to show that rags are offered to wells. These\nauthors are often misled by the incomplete data that they receive from\ntheir informants and in the absence of full particulars any such incident\nas a flag hoisted near a well is put forward as an example indicating the\nprevalence of a custom altogether foreign to the conceptions and even\nrepugnant to the sentiments of the Indian population.\n\nNo one mentions flags, all the folklorists talk of rags. Perhaps, there\nis an excuse for it, as the new flags, no doubt, get soiled in course of\ntime. But, as pointed out above, it should not have been overlooked that\na regular standard is invariably put up in honour of the presiding deity.\nIt has no suggestion for disease-transference. All deities, whatever\ntheir specific virtues, get this honour without exception. The question,\nthen, for consideration is, does the same idea of reverence account for\nthe flags hoisted on trees? There is no doubt that the primary idea was\nthe same, although in process of time superstitious people came to think\nthat that was an offering demanded by the spirits living in the trees and\nthat if the offering was not given, calamities would befall, particularly\nillness. For instance, one of these spirits is known by the name of\n_Chitharia_ or _Ragged Pir_. He is supposed to dwell in such trees as the\nKhijado, _i.e._, Shami (Prosopis Spicigera) and Bawal, _i.e._, Babhul\n(Acacia Arabica). It is a common belief that if a mother fails to offer a\nflag to such a holy tree while passing by it, her children\u2019s health and\nlife are jeopardised. According to another belief, travellers, in order\nto accomplish their journey safely, offer flags to the trees reputed to\nbe the dwelling-places of spirits, if they happen to come across them\nduring the journey.\n\nIn the _Folklore Notes of Gujarat_ several interesting examples of these\nbeliefs and practices have been given and these may be transcribed here\nin the compiler\u2019s own words:\u2014\n\n\u201cSome believe that both male and female spirits reside in the _Khijado_,\n_B\u0101val_ and _Kerado_ trees and throw rags over them with the object of\npreventing passers-by from cutting or removing the trees. Some pile\nstones round their stems and draw tridents over them with red lead and\noil. If superstitious people come across such trees, they throw pieces of\nstones on the piles, believing them to be holy places, and think that by\ndoing so they attain the merit of building a temple or shrine. A belief\nruns that this pile should grow larger and larger day by day, and not be\ndiminished. If the base of such a tree is not marked by a pile of stones,\nrags only are offered; and if rags are not available, the devotee tears\noff a piece of his garment, however costly it may be, and dedicates it to\nthe tree.\n\n\u201cOnce a child saw its mother offering a rag to such a tree, and asked her\nthe reason of the offering. The mother replied that her brother, that is\nthe child\u2019s maternal uncle, dwelt in the tree. Hence a belief arose that\na _chithario_ (ragged) uncle dwells in such trees. Others assert that the\n_chithario pir_ dwells in such trees, and they propitiate him by offering\ncocoanuts and burning frankincense before it.\n\n\u201cThere is a _Khijado_ tree near Sultanpur which is believed to be the\nresidence of a demon _m\u0101mo_. This demon is propitiated by the offerings\nof rags.\n\n\u201cSome declare that travellers fix rags of worn-out clothes to the trees\nmentioned above in order that they may not be attacked by the evil\nspirits residing in them. Another belief is that the spirits of deceased\nancestors residing in such trees get absolution through this form of\ndevotion. It is also believed that a goddess called _chitharia devi_\nresides in such trees, and being pleased with these offerings, blesses\nchildless females with children, and cures persons suffering from itch\nof their disease. There is a further belief that ragged travellers, by\noffering pieces of their clothes to the _Khijado_, _B\u0101val_ or _Kerado_\ntrees, are blessed in return with good clothes.\n\n\u201cSome believe that Hanum\u0101n, the lord of spirits, resides in certain\ntrees. They call him _chithario_ or ragged Hanum\u0101n. All passers-by\noffer rags to the trees inhabited by him. There is such a tree near the\nstation of Shirei. There is a tamarind tree on the road from Tamnagar to\nKhantalia which is believed to be the residence of _chithario_ Hanum\u0101n\nand receives similar offerings. Another tamarind tree of this description\nis near Marad and there is a _Khijado_ tree on the road between Kalavad\nand Vavadi which is similarly treated.\n\n\u201cIt is related by some people that in deserts trees are rare and the\nsummer heat is oppressive. To the travellers passing through such deserts\nthe only place of rest is in the shadow of a solitary tree that is to\nbe met occasionally. In order that no harm be done to such trees, some\npeople have given currency to the belief that a spirit called _m\u0101mo_\ndwells in such trees and expects the offering of a rag and a pice at the\nhands of every passer-by.\n\n\u201cIn some places, the _Bor\u0101di_ (jujube,) _Pipal_, _Vad_ (banyan) and the\nsweet basil receive offerings of a pice and a betel-nut from travellers,\nwhile the _Khijado_ and _B\u0101val_ are given rags.\u201d\n\nIn all these instances we notice the confusion of rags with flags, but\nthey unmistakably establish the point that the idea underlying the\noffering is that of propitiating the spirit. A few more instances may be\ncited from Crooke\u2019s _Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India_.\n\u201cAmong the Mirzapur Korwas the Baiga hangs rags on the trees which shade\nthe village shrine, as a charm to bring health and good luck. These rag\nshrines are to be found all over the country, and are generally known as\n_Chithariya_ or _Chithraiya Bhavani_, \u2018Our Lady of Tatters.\u2019 So in the\nPunjab the trees on which rags are hung are named after Lingri Pir or the\nrag saint. The same custom prevails at various Himalayan shrines and at\nthe Vastra Harana or sacred tree at Bindraban near Mathura which is now\ninvested with a special legend, as commemorating the place where Krishna\ncarried off the clothes of the milkmaids when they were bathing, an\nincident which constantly appears in both European and Indian folklore.\nIn Berar a heap of stones daubed with red and placed under a tree\nfluttering with rag represents Chindiya Deo or \u2018the Lord of Tatters,\u2019\nwhere, if you present a rag in due season, you may chance to get new\nclothes.\u201d\n\nCrooke\u2019s authority for this last instance is the _Gazetteer_, but as\nindicated above these authorities have all missed the point that the\noriginal conception was to honour the tree-spirit and that these flags\nare hoisted either as a mark of reverence or as a thank-offering for\ncures from diseases and other boons and further that these are regular\nflags and not scraps of shirts and petticoats fixed on bushes or hung on\ntrees, as in Europe. During my recent journey from Rawalpindi to Kashmir\nI saw several trees the boughs of which were decked with flags of white\nand red cloth. In Baluchistan also I saw a good many trees similarly\ndecked with flags. In each case I found that there was a grave of a saint\nunderneath or close by the tree and that the flags were hoisted in honour\nof the saint. There was no suggestion of disease-transference, although\nthe villagers admitted that it was customary to offer these flags if,\nin response to a prayer to the saint or a vow, any ailment was cured.\nEverywhere the explanation given was the same. The flag was presented to\nthe saint only and solely as a thank-offering for a wish fulfilled.\n\nThe cult of rag offering is believed to extend throughout Africa from\nwest to east. Park in his _Travels in the Interior of Africa_ says: \u201cThe\ncompany advanced as far as a large tree called by the natives Neema Toba.\nIt had a very singular appearance, being covered with innumerable rags or\nscraps of cloth, which persons travelling across the wilderness had at\ndifferent times tied to its branches, a custom so generally followed that\nno one passes it without hanging up something.\u201d Park adds that he also\nfollowed the example, and suspended a handsome piece of cloth on one of\nthe boughs. Burton found the custom prevailing in Arabia and Sir William\nOuseley saw a tree close to a large monolith covered with rags. Ferrier\nin his _Caravan Journeys_ says that these rags are fixed on bushes in\nPersia in the name of Imam Raza. It is believed that the eye of the Imam\nbeing always on the top of the mountain, the shreds which are left there\nby those who hold him in reverence remind him of what he ought to do in\ntheir behalf with Muhammad, Ali and the other holy personages, who are\nable to propitiate the Almighty in their favour. Hannay regarded these\nrags as charms for disease-transference. In his _Travels in Persia_ he\nsays: \u201cAfter ten days\u2019 journey we arrived at a caravanserai, where we\nfound nothing but water. I observed a tree with a number of rags tied\nto the branches: these were so many charms which passengers coming from\nGhilan, a province remarkable for agues, had left there, in a fond\nexpectation of leaving their disease also on the same spot.\u201d\n\nThis evidence, however, needs corroboration. Meanwhile, considering how\ndangerous it is to generalise on the strength of stray statements and\nobservations of foreigners, considering how these statements reveal only\nhalf-truths in the case of many Indian customs, we may take this evidence\nwith caution. If, however, what Hannay says is based on the actual\npractices and beliefs of the Persian Mahomedans, we are led to infer\nthat not only in several places in Europe but also in many parts of Asia\nthe rag came to be regarded as a vehicle of disease, whatever may have\nbeen the original ideas underlying the offering. When we have evidence\nto show that in Europe pins and rags were used at wells for purposes of\ndivination, it is not difficult to conceive the process of reasoning by\nwhich these articles came to be regarded as appropriate offerings to the\nindwelling spirits, no matter how insignificant their intrinsic value.\nThese instruments of divination, having done their duty, must have been\nconsigned to the waters as being the best place for depositing them.\nThen, probably, they were looked upon as indispensable offerings to the\nwater goblins and then, although the practice of divination disappeared,\nthese articles still came to be regarded as appropriate offerings for\nthe well-spirits, and the rustic mind, ignorant of the genealogy of\nthe custom, interpreted the survival of the ancient usages according\nto its own conception of sympathetic magic and either looked upon the\nrag-offering as a charm for disease-transference, or as a connecting link\nwith the deity. This theory of the origin of the custom, which is here\nput forward with some diffidence, also explains the growth of the two\nconflicting theories (1) that the rags are vehicles of disease or charms\nfor disease-transference, and (2) that they are simple offerings to\npropitiate the deity.\n\nWe have rambled far in our survey of the cult of rag offerings, because\nit represents a peculiarly interesting phase of water-worship. Of the\nrituals practised in the worship of water divinities it is the most\nrude and primitive. While the ceremonies of well-worship in the west\ncorrespond in several details, notably the offerings of flowers and\ncoins, to the rituals with which we are familiar in this country, they\ncontain some distinctive elements, the most remarkable of which is this\npractice of rag-offerings. We have cited numerous instances to show\nhow common the practice was in Great Britain and Ireland and how it\nsurvives even to this day in certain parts, but while it was and still\nis a general feature of water-worship in those parts, it was and is\nunknown in India, although some folklorists have erroneously identified\nit with the entirely different, though seemingly analogous, practice\nof hoisting flags or _dhajas_ at shrines and sacred trees. Perhaps the\nbest explanation for the practice of rag-offering is that it may be a\ndegenerate form of flag-offering.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\nANIMAL DEITIES OF WATER.\n\n\nThe western practices and customs we have noticed show that the cult of\nwater-worship prevailed and survived throughout the west in a primitive\nform, evidently in a coarser form than in the east. The most remarkable\nfeature of this rude worship is the belief in the presence of animals\nor fish as the presiding spirits or tutelary deities of the wells and\nit affords a very curious illustration of the savagery of those days in\nEurope. Originally, the worship was established for one great divinity of\nwater. Later, however, both in the east and in the west, the inhabitants\nof different places came to believe in different spirits of water. Thus\ndid the wells and rivers and pools and tanks of India come to be peopled\nby fairies and genii, goblins and witches, sayyids and saints. All these\nare represented in the guardian spirits of the wells and rivers and pools\nand tanks on the Continent. But our western friends go a step further and\nfill these wells with numerous animal gods which are very imperfectly\nrepresented in the waters of the east.\n\nWe find a general belief amongst the Hindus that the nether regions\nare inhabited by water snakes called Nags. Such were the Kaliya Nag,\nwho resided at the bottom of the Jumna and attacked the infant Krishna\nby whom he was driven from that place, also the Serpent King of Nepal,\nKarkotaka, who dwelt in the lake Nagarasa when the divine lotus of Adi\nBuddha floated on its surface. It is believed that a pool at the temple\nor Treyugi Narayana in Garhwal is full of snakes of a yellow colour which\nemerge from water to be worshipped on the Nagpanchami day. Another belief\nequates the Nags with a species of semi-divine beings, half men and half\nserpents, who possess magnificent palaces under water. The Puranas are\nfull of traditions relating to princes who visited these palaces in\nwatery regions and brought back beautiful Nagkanyas, or daughters of\nNags, therefrom. For instance, Arjuna married a Nagkanya named Ulupi when\nhe was living in exile with his brothers.\n\nNo other animal water-gods are found in Hindu mythology. In the west,\nhowever, the guardian spirits of pools and wells are frogs and trouts and\nworms and flies. At the well on the Devil\u2019s Causeway, between Ruckley\nand the Acton, the devil and his imps appear in the form of frogs; three\nfrogs are always seen together, and these are the imps; the largest frog,\nrepresenting the devil, appearing but seldom. The Fount of Tober Kieran,\nnear Kells, County Meath, in Ireland, rises in a diminutive rough-sided\nbasin of limestone of natural formation and evidently untouched by a\ntool. In the water are a brace of miraculous trout \u201cwhich, according to\ntradition, have occupied their narrow prison from time immemorial. They\nare said never in the memory of man to have altered in size, and it is\nsaid of them that their appearance is ever the same.\u201d\n\nIn Galway there is a deep depression in the limestone called \u201cPigeon\nHole,\u201d and the sacred rivulet running at the base of the chasm is\nbelieved to contain a pair of enchanted trout, one of which is said to\nhave been captured some time ago by a trooper and cooked, but upon the\napproach of cold steel \u201cthe creature at once changed into a beautiful\nwoman,\u201d and was returned to the stream. The well at Tullaghan, County\nSligo, also harbours a brace of miraculous trout, not always visible to\nordinary eyes. Similarly, at Bally Morereigh, in Dingle, County Kerry,\nis a sacred well called Tober Monachan, where a salmon and eel appear to\nthose devotees whom the guardian spirits of the well wish to favour. In\nScotland at Kilbride in Skye was a well with one trout. \u201cThe natives are\nvery tender of it,\u201d says Martin, \u201cand though they often chance to catch\nit in their wooden pails, they are very careful to preserve it from being\ndestroyed.\u201d In the well at Kilmore, in Lorn, were two fishes, black in\ncolour, never augmenting in size or number nor exhibiting any alteration\nof colour, and the inhabitants of the place \u201cdoe call the saide fishes\nEasg Saint, that is to say, holie fishes.\u201d\n\nSir Laurence Gomme records other examples of a still more interesting\nnature. If, says Dalyell, a certain worm in a medicinal spring on the\ntop of the hill in the parish of Strathdon were found alive, it augured\nthe recovery of a patient, and in a well of Ardnacloich, in Appin, the\npatient, \u201cif he bee to dye shall find a dead worme therein or a quick\none, if health bee to follow.\u201d These, there can be little doubt, are the\nformer deities of the spring thus reduced in status.\n\nMention has already been made of the presiding genius of the well of St.\nMichael near the Church of Kirkmichael, in Banffshire, who assumes the\nsemblance of a fly, and who is immortal and always present in the water.\n\u201cTo the eye of ignorance,\u201d says the local account, \u201che might sometimes\nappear dead, but it was only a transmigration into a similar form, which\nmade little alteration to the real identity.\u201d \u201cIt seems impossible,\u201d\nremarks Sir Laurence Gomme, \u201cto mistake this as an almost perfect example\nwhere the guardian deity of the sacred spring is represented in animal\nform. More perfect than any other example to be met with in Britain and\nits isles is this singular description of the traditional peasant belief,\nit lifts the whole evidence as to the identification of wells in Britain\nas the shrine of ancient local deities into close parallel with savage\nideas and thought.\u201d Professor Robertson Smith points out that the divine\nlife of the waters is believed to reside in the sacred fish that inhabits\nthem, and he gives numerous examples analogous to the Scottish and Irish,\nbut whether represented by fish, or frog, or worm, or fly, in all their\nvarious forms, the point of the legends is that the sacred source is\neither inhabited by a demoniac being or imbued with demoniac life.\n\nHere we may bring to a close our analysis of water-worship in East\nand West. Enough evidence has been adduced to establish the identity\nof ideas and usages connected with the worship of water in India with\nthose prevailing in Europe, particularly in the British Isles. Of all\nthe great objects of nature water impressed people the most. It came\nto be worshipped everywhere. The foundation of the cult everywhere was\nthe same. The forms and rituals were, therefore, part and parcel of\nthe same common cult. There is, however, a difference in the degree in\nwhich they have survived in different places according to the stage\nof culture attained by the inhabitants of the place. These variations\nenable us to compare the stages of culture of different communities at\ndifferent intervals, stages of culture which are practically lost to\nhistory, but to which folklore affords many a clue. In the legendary\nlore and traditional materials known as folklore there are precious\nfragments of information from which can be reared enduring monuments of\nhistory if these are carefully handled and scientifically sifted. The\nvalue, therefore, of these seemingly unmeaning beliefs and customs to the\nstudent of ethnology and folklore cannot be over-estimated, and this, if\nnothing else, may be pleaded in justification of the author\u2019s attempt\nto revive the dying fame of the miraculous pools and rivers and their\nwonder-working denizens.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n\n[1] Even to this day people in rural England scare away the spirit of\nague by saying \u201cAgue! farewell till we meet in hell.\u201d Similarly, they\nappease the spirit of cramp by saying \u201cCramp, be thou faultless, as our\nLady was when she bore Jesus.\u201d\n\n[2] Folklore Notes, Vol. I.\u2014Gujarat.\n\n[3] Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay. Paper on the Cult\nof the Bath by Mr. K. M. Jhaveri, Vol. IX.\n\n[4] With this incident may be compared the English traditions concerning\nthe preservation of the holy wells of England, _vide_ page 75.\n\n[5] The Athen\u00e6um, August 26th 1893.\n\n[6] Evans Wentz: The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries.\n\n[7] Latham: Descriptive Ethnology.\n\n[8] The Zoroastrian month _Aban_ named after _Ardevi Sura Anahita_\ncoincided for the most part with February, which is named after Juno,\nderived from the Sabine word _Februs_, to purify. Juno also presided over\nthe ceremony of purification of women.\n\n[9] _Vide_ part II, chapter XIII.\n\n[10] _The Religion of the Semites._\n\n[11] Tylor: Primitive Culture, Vol. II.\n\n[12] Jewish Encyclop\u00e6dia.\n\n[13] Max M\u00fcller: History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature.\n\n[14] The Vicissitudes of Aryan Civilization in India.\n\n[15] Primitive Culture, Vol. II.\n\n[16] Primitive Culture, Vol. II.\n\n[17] Miss Hamilton: Greek Saints and their Festivals.\n\n[18] Gomme: _Folklore as an Historical Science_.\n\n[19] Since this chapter was written Russia has been in the throes of a\nrevolution and it is not known who will preside at the ceremony in future\nin lieu of the Czar.\n\n[20] W. Crooke: Folklore of Northern India.\n\n[21] Crooke: Folklore of Northern India.\n\n[22] Faiths of Man.\n\n[23] Dr. Felman: The Jewish Child.\n\n[24] Bombay Gazetteer, xix.\n\n[25] Crooke: Folklore of Northern India, vol. I.\n\n[26] _Ibid._\n\n[27] Hunt: Popular Romances.\n\n[28] Major-General Forlong: Faiths of Man, vol. III.\n\n[29] G. F. Abbott: Macedonian Folklore.\n\n[30] Ethnographic Survey of Baluchistan, Vol II.\n\n[31] Census of India, 1901, Vol. XVII.\n\n[32] The Jewish Child.\n\n[33] Clifford: In Court and Campong.\n\n[34] Statistical Account of Scotland.\n\n[35] Faiths of Man.\n\n[36] _The Athen\u00e6um_, August 26, 1893.\n\n[37] G. L. Gomme: Ethnology in Folklore.\n\n[38] Good Words Magazine, 1905.\n\n[39] Mr. Sarat Chandra Mitra in the _Journal_ of the Anthropological\nSociety of Bombay, Vol. III.\n\n[40] Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay, Vol. III., No. 5.\n\n[41] Codrington: The Melanesians.\n\n[42] The Pirate.\n\n[43] W. Crooke: Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India. In this\nwork the name of the river is given as _Vaitaran\u00ee_. It must not, however,\nbe mistaken for the Vaitarana, the largest of the Thana rivers, which\nis mentioned in the _Mahabharat_ as one of the four sacred streams.\nThe sacredness of its source, so near the spring of the holy Godaveri,\nattracted to the banks of the Vaitarana some of the first Aryan settlers.\nSeers like Narad, Vashistha and Indra betook themselves to the spring\nand the superhuman Yakshas, Gandharvas and Kinnars were attracted to its\nwaters for bathing and sacrifice.\n\n[44] Ethnology in Folklore.\n\n[45] The Golden Bough, Vol. II.\n\n[46] Primitive Culture, Vol. II.\n\n[47] Primitive Semitic Religion.\n\n[48] We may contrast with these examples the following illustration of\npunishing the gods and demi-gods for tolerating a tempest. It is quoted\nby Herbert Spencer in his \u201cStudy of Sociology,\u201d from Captain Burton\u2019s\naccount of Goa to show how awe of power sways men\u2019s religious beliefs:\u2014\n\n\u201cA pot of oil with a lighted wick was placed every night by the half-bred\nPortuguese Indians, before the painted doll, the patron saint of the\nboat in which we sailed from Goa. One evening, as the weather appeared\nlikely to be squally, we observed that the usual compliment was not\noffered to the patron, and had the curiosity to inquire why. \u2018Why,\u2019\nvociferated the tindal (captain), indignantly, \u2018if that chap can\u2019t keep\nthe sky clear, he shall have neither oil nor wick from me, d\u2014n him!\u2019 \u2018But\nI should have supposed that in the hour of danger you would have paid\nhim more than usual attention?\u2019 \u2018The fact is, Sahib, I have found out\nthat the fellow is not worth his salt: the last time we had an infernal\nsquall with him on board, and if he does not keep this one off, I\u2019ll just\nthrow him overboard, and take to Santa Caterina; hang me if I don\u2019t\u2014the\nbrother-in-law!\u2019\u201d [Brother-in-law, a common term of insult.]\n\n[49] Primitive Semitic Religion.\n\n[50] _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, Vol. IV.\n\n[51] W. Crooke: Natives of Northern India.\n\n[52] _Bombay Gazetteer_ (Kathiawar), Vol. VIII.\n\n[53] Folklore Notes, Vol. I\u2014Gujarat.\n\n[54] _Ibid._, Vol. II\u2014Konkan.\n\n[55] Ethnology in Folklore.\n\n[56] Knowlson: The Origins of Popular Superstitions and Customs.\n\n[57] G. F. Abbott: Macedonian Folklore.","title":"Folklore of Wells: Being a Study of Water-Worship in East and West","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":45960}